OTTAWA–Canadians have until Sunday to give their two cents on how best to protect intellectual property at a time when words and music can be uploaded and downloaded in seconds around the world.

Liberal and Conservative governments have spent the better part of the last decade reviewing the Copyright Act, which was penned long before the Internet existed.

"There is no question this is one of the toughest files the government faces," Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, said yesterday.

Referring to the threat of a fall federal election, Geist said the input collected at town hall meetings across the country and from almost 5,000 submissions should survive a change in government.

The 1921 act has undergone numerous updates, being amended as recently as 1997.