Participate in the "Save our Culture" campaign!

Friday, August 30, 2019

The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE) has launched the "Save our Culture" campaign.

As an associate member of the CDCE, Access Copyright supports this campaign because we believe Canadian creators need to be fairly compensated and supported to tell our unique stories.

For years, our national, regional and local cultures flourished on radio, television and print. Our policies enabled the development of dynamic and professional cultural ecosystems that nourished our identity, and even our economy. While online platforms have brought a previously unimaginable amount of cultural content at our fingertips, these same policies that have helped support and build our cultural sector do not apply online.

This means that online platforms do not have to comply with the same rules as our retailers, broadcasters and cable operators, and are not required to promote and finance local cultural content. In addition, foreign companies benefit from more favourable taxation and accumulate valuable data on our habits and preferences while not providing data on access to our culture.

Similarly, Internet and mobile phone service providers are seeing their revenues increase thanks to access to online cultural content, but without being required to contribute to the financing of its creation.

Meanwhile, more and more artists, creators, professionals and cultural entrepreneurs must make significant sacrifices. Some can no longer even make a living from their art or activities.

There is an urgent need to act to ensure that our cultural ecosystems remain alive and innovative and continue to fuel our uniqueness, pride and aspirations.

Let’s apply our policies to the Web. Let’s put pressure on Ottawa.

Visit saveourculture.ca to learn more and get engaged.

#SaveOurCulture