(CBC)
The legendary
Michael Enright – host forever of the slowly declining but still usually
worthwhile Sunday Edition on CBC – has let
his listeners and the CBC down badly today with his weekly "essay" entitled “A new survey shows how poorly writers
are paid in this country”. It is
apparently based on little if anything more than a Writers’ Union of Canada (“WUC”)
undated press release (which he acknowledges) based in
turn upon a so-called “survey” of so-called writers that yields the much quoted and
highly misleading result that the average Canadian writer makes only $9,380 a
year and the incomes are falling fast. He says that: “In 2012, the Harperites
changed the copyright laws, reducing writers' share of educational copying by
tens of millions of dollars. The government's argument was that reducing the
writers' compensation would help the education sector.” This, of course, is
legally and factually false. Sadly, his “essay” can charitably be called “fake
news” at best. The timing is interesting, coming just a day before what
promises to be an eventful #INDU committee hearing on December 3,
2018 that will include Prof. Ariel Katz and Barry Sookman and amid lots of other hot and heavy committee hearings lately
sadly full of fake news.
The obvious
problem is that the survey respondents here are self-selecting and self-defining.
Almost anyone can qualify to be an Access Copyright (“AC”) creator affiliate –
and it’s not much harder to be a Writers’ Union member, since even a
self-published book “that successfully demonstrates commercial intent and
professionalism” gets one in the door – for whatever benefit if any that may be
available. At least it presumably still doesn’t
cost anything to join Access Copyright. I should disclose that I’ve been a
member for years and earned almost $85 this past year in royalties – more than
many. I obviously don’t consider myself a professional writer – though I write
constantly – and I’m not about to quit my day job. Waving a magic legislative wand
to double my AC payout would get me a modest lunch for two at a decent restaurant
without a bottle of wine – but could cost hundreds of millions of dollars a
year to the Canadian educational system.
UNEQ – the counterpart
to AC in Quebec – has been spouting
similar apparently unreliable figures, claiming
according to Le Devoir on November
27, 2018 “While the average salary of respondents was $
9,169, the median wage - the point at which 50% of the sample receives a higher
salary and 50% receives a lower salary - did not exceed $ 3,000.” (as
translated)
If Michael and/or
his staff did any other research beyond WUC and perhaps Access Copyright propaganda,
its not apparent.
Anyway, here are
my three tweets back to @CBCSunday. I’ve listened to Michael for decades and he’s a
treasure – so it’s sad to see him and his staff get played this way, or maybe
even sadder still if he has lost his sense of journalistic balance and the need
for adequate research.
HPK
1/3 Michael’s essay is embarrassingly bad both factually & legally. It’s based only on the WUC so-called “survey” which in turn is apparently based on self-selected so-called “writers”, whoever they may be. Almost anyone can be a writer/member of WUC or Access Copyright. @mgeist https://t.co/Vs15ArFg3N— Howard Knopf (@howardknopf) December 2, 2018
3/3 For a factually up to date take on fair dealing in Canada, see @MGeist’s excellent recent series on his blog, e.g. on how books are rapidly declining as part of coursepack materials https://t.co/jjnGN6uA10 @MGeist #CHPC #INDU— Howard Knopf (@howardknopf) December 2, 2018
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