There is a campaign underway to convince the federal government to stand up for the rights of creators.

The request is that the Copyright Act be amended and reinforced, because it was seriously undermined by amendments passed by the previous government led by Stephen Harper. Those changes permitted wholesale copying of books by universities without the authors of the books receiving any compensation.

The campaign is called Creators Calling on Ottawa. Writers—and other creators—are encouraged to send messages to the responsible federal politicians. Those individuals are the Prime Minister and two of his ministers.

@JustinTrudeau

@FP_Champagne

@pablorodriguez

A sample message from a writer could be:

To keep creating Canadian stories like the ones I write, the education sector needs to pay for the use of our work. The government needs to fix the Copyright Act.

The message is to be accompanied by a photo of a writer holding up one of their books. Like this: