Meanwhile, in Canada... A Surprisingly Sensible Copyright Review

A Standing Committee of Canada's House of Commons recently conducted a statutorily mandated review of the Canadian Copyright Act, culminating in a final report that was released in June 2019. This Comment provides an overview of the context, substance, and significance of this surprisingly sensible and well-balanced Industry Committee report, and contrasts it against an earlier report of the Canadian Heritage Committee as well as recent copyright-expansionist developments in Europe. While “sensible” might seem like faint praise indeed, we live in a world in which common sense copyright policy is, alas, surprisingly far from common. This comment argues that supporters of balanced copyright, genuinely consultative processes, and evidence-based policy-making should therefore be rallying around the example set by Canada's Copyright Act Review, for it reveals a possible route towards what is, unfortunately, an increasingly radical aspiration: a reasonably sensible copyright system