While many in the library, research, and technology communities have hailed Google’s recent fair use victory, some have expressed skepticism about who is the real beneficiary of the ruling. Some librarians have wondered whether their enthusiasm about the ruling should not “be tempered by the understanding that Google is not the do-no-evil corporation it once represented itself as being?“
Canada’s education system is facing a potentially-serious problem. While many educational institutions believe, correctly in my view, that they have better alternatives to comply with the Copyright Act than licenses from Access Copyright, Access Copyright continues to push for rulings that would allow it to impose itself on educators and, essentially, collect a hefty “education tax”–as it will inevitably be called–from Canada’s educational institutions. Access Copyright believes, incorrectly in my view, that a tariff approved by the Copyright Board can and will become mandatory on any institution that may be held liable for making a single infringing copy of a …
I love the UofT library system. For me it’s no wonder it has been ranked again as one of the top three research libraries in North America. And if that’s not enough the library is launching a new catalog that will make its already user-friendly catalog easy to use on all devices from smart phones to desktops. If that’s not good enough, let me tell you a less-known fact about the library. Since 2005 the library has been collaborating with the Internet Archive, quietly digitizing thousands of public domain materials and making them freely accessible to all. I don’t know the …
Locke and I: Part 3 Continued from Locke and I: Part 2 “[A]s all things that are good in this act, the Company of Stationers minding nothing in it but what makes for their monopoly.” John Locke (1693) When I called John Locke the following day he was much more cheerful than he was in our previous conversations. “Good morning Ariel, I’m so glad you called back,” he said when he answered the phone. “Your explanations about Access Copyright’s latest moves allow me to start making sense of it. But you still have to explain to me what you meant …
The Company of Stationers Minding Nothing But What Makes for Their Monopoly Read more »
Locke and I: Part 2 Continued from Locke and I: Part 1 [T]he Company of Stationers have obtained from the Crown a patent to print all, or at least the greatest part, of the classic authors, upon pretence, as I hear, that they should be well and truly printed. … but by this act scholars are subjected to the power of these dull wretches, … unless they pay them 6s. 8d. a book for that leave. John Locke (1693) Locke did not wait until the next day. A couple of hours after our previous conversation–I was still in my office–he called …
Scholars are Subjected to the Power of These Dull Wretches Read more »