You tap on your keyboard and start searching — via Google, Yahoo or maybe Facebook platforms — for subject matter produced by journalists working for Canadian news media organizations.

You click on a link and the story you want pops up, free of charge, compliments of powerful tech giants who distribute news outlets’ original content on their lucrative platforms without paying a fee. Sometimes original news content is simply duplicated by aggregators or bloggers, the journalistic work shared without permission or payment.

The European Union’s recent decision to adopt tougher digital copyright laws offers better protections for creative industries, including news media. News outlets in the EU, for instance, would be able to claim compensation from tech platforms when their copyrighted work is used.

In Canada, it’s been a tough sell, even with the EU establishing a model to follow after years of bargaining with web platform behemoths.

“It’s certainly influential,” said Bob Cox, publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press and chair of News Media Canada of the EU’s digital copyright breakthrough.

“But there hasn’t been the same appetite here to confront any of the big tech giants, be it Google or Facebook or Apple or any of them,” added Cox.

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News Media Canada describes itself as “the voice of Canada’s news media industry” that advocates for members (more than 800 in every province and territory) and works to increase the industry profile “with advertisers, government and other stakeholders,” according to the organization’s website. Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, is a member.

Cox and other Canadian news industry leaders — including John Boynton, Torstar president and CEO, and publisher of the Star — have lobbied Ottawa over the past two years for copyright relief, among other matters.

“I’ve been to Ottawa many times to talk about various issues involving newspapers and potential changes in the (copyright) law that can help newspapers and almost all the time, I get a receptive audience and an understanding audience, but no action,” Cox said with a laugh.

This sluggish response comes during a difficult phase for an industry in transition, one which is struggling to mine internet profitability as traditional ad revenue streams evaporate. (Under the Trudeau government, two commissions have examined industry issues and put forward sets of recommendations that, to date, have had scant traction).

In Europe, Cox said, there’s a greater political will to fight for strong cultural protections.

“We’ve argued it’s a cultural matter here, too,” he said. “But the simple fact is that many of us who are news content producers have been frustrated for a very long time in the widespread sharing of our content that we don’t get a revenue share in.

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“(That sharing) can build wide exposure and most of us have audiences that are larger than we ever imagined possible but our revenue keeps shrinking, so copyright protection could be a key element to restoring a little bit of balance (for) getting some revenue for the work we do,” he continued.

Boynton offered a way to understand how creative industries, like news organizations, view the free sharing of their work.

“I’m selling a loaf of bread to a grocery store and I put that loaf of bread in the grocery store, and the store (owner) says ‘Thank you,’ ” Boynton said.

“A guy walks into the grocery store, he takes the loaf of bread for free — so he’s basically shoplifting — and sets up a little desk outside of the grocery story, resells the loaf to the people coming out of the grocery store and makes all the profit. That’s essentially what (tech giants) are doing; they’re taking our content and they’re giving it away for free.”

Boynton said there’s nothing “nefarious” about digital giants sharing news content without paying for it.

“They can get away with it, so they’re doing it,” he said.

Boynton agreed with Cox that the Canadian government is not moving quickly to aid the industry, even though the EU has provided “a gift-wrapped solution that’s already been thought through, heavily debated, compromised and issued” after its three-year digital copyright battle.

In the meantime, Boynton says Torstar has requested Ottawa take swift action to assist news media outlets — and the paying audience it serves — in a November budget edict: Allow Canadian customers (not advertisers) to deduct the entire digital news subscription for Canadian news-specific organizations from personal taxes.

He said it’s “a cleaner tax break for customers” (it would not be a charitable status claim) and a way for the government to be seen as “championing and contributing to more educated Canadians, who make better voters.” The Star launched its digital subscription service in September.

And, it would be transformative for Canada’s new media landscape, Boynton predicted.

“I believe it is the single biggest thing to turn the industry around,” he said.