The Copyright Question: A Letter to the Toronto Board of Trade

At stake was nothing less than the livelihood of every Canadian writer, publisher, and intellectual worker. In 1898, the Toronto Board of Trade proposed resolutions that would have gutted copyright protection for Canadian authors, potentially returning them to an era of unchecked piracy and exploitation. George N. Morang's passionate open letter stands as a vigorous defense of creators' rights during a pivotal moment in Canadian cultural politics. Morang meticulously traces the evolution of copyright law since 1847, dissects the Fisher Bill, and explains how existing British imperial protections gave Canadian authors rights equal to their British counterparts. He warns that any retreat toward localized legislation would dismantle these hard-won protections and expose Canadian writers to the very exploitation the law was designed to prevent. This is a window into a forgotten era when the foundations of Canadian literary culture were being fought over in boardrooms and legislative chambers. Anyone interested in the political economy of culture, Canadian history, or the evolution of intellectual property law will find in these pages a fierce advocate whose arguments still resonate.