Fair Dealing’s Halls of F/Sh/ame

Posted on Posted in Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers 16 Comments

On May 15, 2012 the University of British Columbia announced that it would not sign a license agreement with Access Copyright, and immediately was inducted into Canada’s Fair Dealing Hall of Fame.

“We believe we are taking the bolder, more principled and sustainable option, which best serves the fundamental and long-term interests of our academic community”, said David H. Farrar, Provost and Vice President Academic (Vancouver) and Doug Owram, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Principal (Okanagan). Yes, you are.

Universities who decided to sign a letter-of-intent to sign a license agreement with Access Copyright but have not yet signed the agreement will be listed in the Purgatory (aka Hall of Lame). If they decide to follow UBC’s lead they will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Otherwise, they will join UofT and Western at the Hall of Shame.

UPDATE: Yesterday I added the deisgnation of “Hall of Lame” to the universities that haven’t decided yet, but after further thought, I’ve decided to remove it, because I realized that despite the nice rhyme with shame and fame, this designation is actually unfair towards the three universities that appear on that list. In fact, the only reason that these institutions appear on that list is that they have publicly announced that they had signed the “letter of intent” while conducting wide consultations. Queen’s University has even set up an internal website for the consultation. This type of consultation is commendable and lame it is not.  So I’m happily giving up the rhyme and apologize.

 

Scoreboard

FameShamePurgatory
19202

 

Hall of Fame

University NameInductedMore info
University of British ColumbiaMay 15, 2012Announcement
Athabasca UniversityMay 17, 2012Announcement
University of WindsorMay 18, 2012 Announcement
University of Winnipeg May 19, 2012From Winnipeg Free Press
York UniversityMay 29, 2012Announcement
University of New BrunswickMay 30, 2012Announcement
University of WaterlooJune 7, 2012Announcement
Mount Royal UniversityJune 8, 2012Unofficial report
Trent UniversityJune 26, 2012Announcement
Memorial UniversityJune 28, 2012Announcement
Carleton UniversityJune 28, 2010Announcement
Royal Roads UniversityJune 28, 2012Announcement
University of SaskatchewanNot confirmedAnnouncement
Queen's UniversityJune 28, 2012Announcement
University of GuelphJune 29, 2012Announcement
University of Northern British ColumbiaJune 29, 2012Announcement
University of PEIAug 22, 2012Notice
University of CalgaryAug 27, 2012Announcement
Simon Fraser UniversitySept. 6, 2012

 

The Purgatory

University NameEnteredMore Info
University of TorontoJune 7, 2013The University of Toronto Leaves Hall of Shame: On the Road to Deserved Fame
University of Western OntarioJune 7, 2013No renewal for current Access Copyright deal

 

Hall of Shame

University NameInductedMore InfoStudents pay?
University of Toronto (temporarily out: June 7, 2013)Jan 30, 2012  

Update: On June 7, 2013 UofT left the House of Shame and moved to the Purgatory.

Media release

See update from June 7, 2013

Yes
University of Western Ontario (temporarily out: June 2013)Jan 30, 2012

Update: Circa June 7, 2013 Western left the House of Shame and moved to the Purgatory.

Media release

See update from June 10, 2013

Yes
University of ManitobaMay 3, 2012Media releaseNo
University of VictoriaMay 17, 2012Shame with chance of parole. "The decision to opt into the license was taken reluctantly ...." Media releaseN/A
McMaster UniversityJune 25,2012N/A
Mount Allison UniversityJune 21, 2012See comment belowN/A
Laurentian UniversityJune 22, 2012See tweet Yes
Dalhousie UniversityJune 25, 2012According to an email that was forwarded to me Dal explains that: "At a fee of $26 per full-time student (which will not be passed on to students in the 2012/2013 academic year), the licence is costly and covers many rights the University already has under copyright legislation or has obtained through licence agreements with publishers. There are other issues with some of the specific terms of the licence as well. Dalhousie has agreed to sign the licence (which expires in 2015), as an interim solution meant to mitigate the risk of litigation from Access Copyright while the University completes the development of a copyright compliance framework that will assist all members of the University community in meeting their shared obligation to respect the rights of copyright-holders in their use of material for research, teaching and learning." Final grade: Shame Minus.No
Kwantlen PolytechnicJune 26, 2012See comment belowN/A
Emily Carr University of Art + DesignJune 28, 2012Reluctantly. "Our intention is to operate under the model license for the next three years, as we continue to develop our internal processes and work with our peer institutions in the province and across Canada, so that we can operate without the license after it expires"N/A
University of OttawaJune 29, 2012Media release "The University is committed to having a framework in place by the end of 2015 to act independently of the license. This work has already begun.”Full time students pay $11.00 per session, part time students will pay $5.00 per session and the university will continue to pay $3.38 per year per student.
Acadia UniversityJune 26, 2012N/AN/A
Wilfrid Laurier UniversityJuly 3, 2012Media release80% Students; 20% University
University of LethbridgeAnnouncement
Lakehead UniversityJune 29, 2012Media release
Brock UniversityJuly 5, 2012AnnouncementN/A
Ryerson UniversityJuly 1, 2012AnnouncementN/A
University of ReginaJuly 24, 2012No official announcement, but see this document.N/A
Mount Saint Vincent UniversityNot confirmedN/A
Nipissing UniversityNoticeN/A
University of AlbertaJune 30, 2012AnnouncementN/A
Thompson Rivers UniversityAug 22, 2012NoticeN/A

 

 

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16 Comments on “Fair Dealing’s Halls of F/Sh/ame”

  1. When you pick a public fight with the President of a university on their own turf, you have to expect to get burned. Huge cheers to UBC for listening to their library and taking the academic approach to intellectual property.

    I hope Athabasca University and a number of eastern schools will be joining the hall of fame shortly.

    Reply

  3. Thanks for putting this together, Ariel. You’ve lent an amusing air to a situation that is in turns encouraging (“Awesome, another non-signer!”) and baffling (“Why, why would anyone sign this?!!”).

    Reply

  5. Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick can be added to the Hall of Shame. There has been no official announcement but it was confirmed at meetings of both the Senate and Board that Mount Allison will sign on to the agreement.

    Reply

  6. Ditto for Kwantlen Polytechnic. No official announcement, but BoG & Senate have been informed that we’re signing. We at the student association have raised the common criticisms and received the common (weak) answers from administrators.

    Reply

  7. Kwantlen is, in fact, the university that I recently wrote about that apparently believes that it must pay Access Copyright for fair dealing. It says in its guidelines:

    “The Canadian Copyright Act indicates that the copying of a work for the purpose of research, private study, criticism, review, or news reporting is justified as Fair Dealing. This applies to all works and does not require permission from the rights holder. Kwantlen Polytechnic University remits an annual fee (based on FTE) to account for this type of copying.”

    See:Repeat After Me: “Fair Dealing Does Not Require Payment – Even to Access Copyright” http://bit.ly/LizoSK

    Reply

  10. So, only 4 universities in Canada are actually supporting this model agreement (UofT,WU,UoMan,Laurentian). The other shamed universities all seem to be signing reluctantly to give themselves time to get out of it.
    So, who is AUCC representing?
    Rory

    Reply

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