On Monday evening, Access Copyright and the Universities of Western Ontario and Toronto announced that they have entered into a new licensing deal.  The UofT agreement is available below, and I was told that the terms of the agreement with Western are identical. Although the joint media release announcing the deal was gleeful, as a UofT Faculty member I am disappointed and concerned.  The agreement is one big step backwards for UofT, and one giant leap for Access Copyright.  Access Copyright could not have hoped for more, and UofT lost an opportunity to stand up, show leadership, and ensure that copyright …

Universities and Copyright: Contrast and Compare Read more »

  The Copyright Board issued last week the following short decision, holding that there is no Crown Immunity in copyright: [1] Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan and the territorial government of Nunavut (collectively the Objectors) rely on the principle of Crown immunity, as codified in section 17 of the Interpretation Act, to claim that the Copyright Act (the “Act”) does not apply to them and that, consequently, the tariffs proposed by Access Copyright in respect of Provincial and Territorial governments cannot bind them. [2] The Objectors’ claim for crown immunity is dismissed …

No Crown Immunity: Copyright Board Read more »

Supporters of collective administration of copyrights often promote collectives as the silver bullet that solves copyright law’s underlying dilemma: how to provide incentives for creators, without unduly limiting access to protected works.  Collectives often argue that they do both.  This kind of argument was presented to the Supreme Court of Canada last week.  At the opening of his oral argument in the education fair dealing case, Access Copyright’s counsel asserted that the outcome of the case has no effect on students’ access to educational material.  “There’s no issue of access here”, he said.  “The students are going to get the material.  …

Access? Copyright! Read more »

The Supreme Court of Canada heard five copyright cases over dense two-day hearings on Dec. 6-7.  One of the cases involved the application of the concept of fair dealing with copyrighted works in education.  At the heart of this appeal was a key distinction made by Copyright Board between copies of works made by students or at their initiative, which could be fair dealing, and copies made by a teacher for students with instructions to read them, which could not.  The distinction is summarized in para. 118 of the Board’s decision: a copy made by a teacher with instructions to …

Fair Dealing, Copyright, and the Haggadah Read more »