Embracing the sharing culture

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Few things reach us on as profound a level as culture. And the act of experiencing it can have a pull on us unlike anything else. We remember the way our grandparents read to us. We can't forget reading that book in high school that exposed us to a point of view or feeling that we had never thought about before. We recall watching that movie that stunned us with the discovery that someone else was able to put onto the screen a feeling we had felt but could never articulate with such artistry.

Read a book, watch a movie, listen to a piece of music and you may feel goosebumps or a slight ache in your heart or pure joy. A feeling, perhaps, that tomorrow may be better than today. Happiness in knowing that in our world, great culture exists.

And when we consume culture, it's natural we want to share it. It makes us want to talk. To inspire enthusiasm in others for that particular piece of music that triggers so much passion or a memorable motion picture or a real page-turner of a book.

And that's exactly what happens everyday around us. The teacher who selects just the right piece of content for her students. The grandfather who reads a book he loved as a child to his grandchildren. Friends gathered at a local coffee shop to discuss a particularly great read.

And we appreciate and admire those artists - whether they be writers, painters, photographers, publishers or a whole host of other individuals - whose work we love. We want them to keep creating because we get so much out of their work and can't wait to see what they come up with next.

When we have such a connection as this, it's natural to feel an urge to signify our support and reward those creators and publishers whose work we love. It's a pull to make sure the person or people responsible for them get something in return. A tangible reward for all their time, effort and work.

These thoughts are shared by Access Copyright as we transform. We want to make it as easy as possible to pass that reward on directly to the Canadian creators and publishers of the content you love, value and admire.

They are part of our guiding principles which state in part, that Access Copyright exists to make sure that, "compensating creators and publishers should be easy" and that "Canadian culture should continue to connect us."

Ensuring you can reward creators and publishers is one way to make sure they continue to create and bring to life the things that inspire you.

It underpins our business strategy as well, which is to partner with digital services to make sure that the copyright and clearance to share and remix content is taken care of and that there is an opportunity to easily pay those who create that content.

It feels good to do this. To know that you are directly supporting your favourite writers, artists and publishers. That we are not all adversaries. That we all play on the same side.

But that's the power of culture. It brings people together and can unite them. Access Copyright wants to make sure that we can all do our part to allow culture to continue to do the marvellous things it does.