As an amateur author, I've been interested in copyright issues for a long time now. One of the bloggers whose opinions on copyright issues (especially as they apply to us as Canadians) I respect most is Michael Geist, who is now warning that our country's proposed entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership may threaten some of the already rather limited freedoms we enjoy as Canadians under our current copyright law.

Mr. Geist encourages those of us who are Canadian citizens to speak out on the issues involved via the public consultation process that has already been put in place to gauge whether or not we should enter the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement. I'm no economic expert, so I can't really comment on many of the aspects of the TPP proposal, but I have at least voiced my opinion on some of the copyright issues involved in the following quick-and-dirty (or at least rough-and-ready) e-mail to consultations@international.gc.ca, the address set up for consultation submissions:

Please do NOT extend copyright any further! 

I am writing to voice my opinion, as a Canadian citizen concerned about copyright issues, that the government should NOT revise our copyright law to bring it into accord with the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Our current copyright provisions, which protect the work of the author for the author's lifetime plus fifty years provide more than enough protection to ensure that the author and his/her immediate beneficiaries will be able to benefit financially from the author's publications. Given the already generous protection afforded by current copyright law, I cannot see any justification for eroding the public domain by further extending the duration of copyright: the author obviously cannot benefit further, and the author's immediate beneficiaries may benefit marginally, but not substantially. The general public's access to works still in copyright years after the author's death, on the other hand, is already significantly hampered, especially in this age of ready access to public domain work by the internet - and would be even more hampered by the extension of copyright required by the TPP. 

Please protect the interests of the Canadian general public and our access to the public domain! Please do NOT ratify the TPP.

If you are going to write in (which I encourage you to do if you have an opinion on this very important issue), do be sure to include all the following specified requirements (which I haven't done a terribly great job of including in my own e-mail!):

1. your name and address and, if applicable, organization, institution or business; 
2. the specific issues being addressed; and 
3. precise information on the rationale for the positions taken, including any significant impact it may have on Canada’s domestic or foreign interests.