CEO Report
Kate EdwardsCEO, Access Copyright Board
Image credit: Emily Doukogiannis“In everything Access Copyright does, partnership and collaboration with our members and affiliates
remains essential.”
With our 2025-2028 strategic plan as our guide, momentum is building at Access Copyright around a renewed mandate focused on service to our community and relevant licensing solutions for customers. In 2025, we continued to take the necessary steps to lay the groundwork to build that future state.The completion of a significant market research project on content use and attitudes towards copyright among Canadian private and public sectors provides us with a wealth of substantial and practical insights to inform future licensing services. In short, use of published works is high and knowledge of copyright and licensing is low among Canadian workers. We are actively applying this evidence to re-vitalize our business development and copyright education efforts, positioning ourselves as a trusted partner in copyright management to organizations large and small.
Like collective management organizations around the world, and in consultation with our members and affiliates, we are also investigating how our licence might evolve to meet the changing needs of customers while also responding to the emerging market for AI licensing. This work will continue in 2026 and complements our advocacy efforts around the need for AI regulation in Canada, including a copyright framework that works for everyone.
In the past year, we re-opened communication with library and copyright staff to explore how Access Copyright might serve post-secondary faculty and students in today’s learning environment, which has changed considerably over the last 15 years. Early discussions have been beneficial, focusing on information gathering around the sector’s content management practices, current challenges, and future needs.
Behind the scenes, the successful completion of a multi-year project to upgrade our business systems was a major accomplishment of 2025. The new systems will underpin our future efforts, and provide our team with the tools they need to adapt to an ever-evolving business environment.
In everything Access Copyright does, partnership and collaboration with our members and affiliates remains essential. In 2026, we look forward to continuing to build on the foundation that has been laid together.