MONTREAL — Film and TV makers are complaining that, despite more than a decade of lobbying, they have been left out in the cold on Ottawa’s latest attempt at copyright reform, which has sparked widespread debate and an 18,000-person protest on Facebook.

‘The government hasn’t sought any consultation from the audio-visual sector and they are far from grasping the issues. The bill will probably mainly deal with the music sector,’ says Anne-Marie Desroches, spokeswoman for Quebec’s Union des Artistes.

‘But copyright is a can of worms. It’s hell,’ she tells Playback Daily. ‘Politically you lose points. Internet users want it to be free, so does the education milieu.’

Industry Minister Jim Prentice was expected to introduce a copyright reform bill this week, but the process has been delayed until both ‘consumers and creators are accommodated,’ says a ministry spokesman.

The online protest against the legislation — which is believed to have caused Prentice to backtrack — is being led by University of Ottawa professor and blogger Michael Geist.

The NDP critic for digital culture, Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay), has also joined the chorus by publically blasting the government for not properly consulting content creators on the new bill, which many fear will mirror the U.S. government’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protects U.S. entertainment companies by outlawing sharing music and video files.

But the union for Canada’s English-language performers says copyright reform shouldn’t be delayed any further, and has accused the government of bowing to pressure from a ‘vocal minority.’

‘This government is turning its back on legislation that is long overdue,’ says Stephen Waddell, national executive director of ACTRA.

‘What’s being said right now is completely over-the-top. Sure, we haven’t been consulted formally, but we’ve been lobbying the government for a decade about these issues.They are aware of our position,’ says Waddell. ‘No one really knows what the content of the legislation will be yet.’

The legislation’s main goal is to ratify the World Intellectual Property Organization Performances and Phonograms treaties adopted in December 1996 and signed by Canada a year later, says Waddell.

‘We want them to table it and see what’s in it and then debate it through the committee process,’ he explains. ‘We don’t want further delays.’

Copyright reform falls under the jurisdiction of both the Heritage and Industry departments. The previous Liberal government tried to pass its own copyright reform bill, C-60, in 2005, but it died when the Opposition brought down the minority government in a no-confidence vote.

A spokesperson for Heritage Canada was not available to speak to the media.

A protest against the legislation is also scheduled to be held at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Dec. 18.

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This story has been corrected. Industry says it will ‘accommodate’ creators but has not said if they will be formally consulted, as stated in the original headline.