Faced with the possibility of more restrictive copyright, Doctorow argues that more open copyright is vital to encourage artists to create. “Copyright is like salt: a little bit can make the stew, too much can ruin it,” he says. “Every author who relies on copyright to protect a work also relies on its absence when drawing on other works.”

There’s not much agreement on the way forward, and it’s not even clear who’s on which side. Most big media companies and creators’ associations want stronger copyright, but a number of Canada’s big-name musicians, like Sarah McLachlan and Sam Roberts, have thrown their support behind the Canadian Music Creators Coalition that advocates for fewer restrictions. And now many big online companies — including Google — have formed their own ad hoc alliance, also asking for more flexibility for consumers.

In 1998, the US tried to bring its copyright law into the Internet Age with the notorious Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA provided the legal clarity that Canadian law still lacks, but 10 years later, its merits are still being hotly debated. Among other things, it has allowed the recording industry to sue file sharers by the thousands. The labels’ Canadian trade organization, the Canadian Recording Industry Association, declined to be interviewed for this story, but in the past it has demonstrated an eagerness to sue pirates. And that has some people nervous.

If one thing is certain, it’s that Canada’s copyright laws are about to change. In 1996, Canada signed an international treaty pledging to clarify copyright, but still hasn’t followed through (much to the chagrin of our trading partners to the south). The last time Canada fully overhauled its copyright law was in 1997, the same year when university students discovered the MP3. By 1999, they were using Napster to download millions of songs. Napster was shut down by court order only two years later for massive copyright violations, and in the years since, digital copyright in Canada has languished as a patchwork of old laws, minor amendments, and court rulings that fail to answer basic questions of what’s legal and what’s not.