Copyright Collectives

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

Tagged with ,

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away there was a country named Broadviewlandia. The name Broadviewlandia had been adopted to symbolize that country’s hopes for a new bright future, as Broadviewlandia was slowly emerging from several centuries of feudal social order. Like in many ex-feudal societies, very few books were written in Broadviewlandia and even fewer were published, and the ones that existed were limited, expansive, and beyond the reach of almost all Broadviewlanders.

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

On May 29, 2014 the Quill & Quire published an article with the sensational title “Why the loss of Access Copyright royalties could be devastating for educational publishers”, which advances the thesis and leads the reader to the supposedly inescapable conclusion that the decision of many educational institutions to sever their ties with Access Copyright has already wreaked havoc with publishers and will continue to be. This is a second of a series of posts in which why these thesis and conclusions do not hold up to scrutiny. Part 1 examined the main smoking gun in the Q&Q article, the claimed …

The Loss of Access Copyright Royalties and the Effect on Publishers: Sifting Fact from Fiction (Part 2) Read more →

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

On May 29, 2014 the Quill & Quire published an article with the sensational title “Why the loss of Access Copyright royalties could be devastating for educational publishers”. Julie Baldassi, the Q&Q staff reporter who wrote the article, advances the thesis and leads the reader to the supposedly inescapable conclusion (despite occasionally inserting words such as “perhaps” or “could”) that the decision of many educational institutions to sever their ties with Access Copyright has already wreaked havoc with publishers and will continue to be. This is a first of a series of posts in which I examine that thesis and conclusions to …

The Loss of Access Copyright Royalties and the Effect on Publishers: Sifting Fact from Fiction (Part 1) Read more →

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives

The Australian Law Reform Commission has finally published its long-awaited Report. This is an impressive and important report, and I am proud that I had some opportunity to contribute to it in a short submission that I made last summer. In my submission I referred to two issues that I have discussed in two recent papers: fair use, and orphan works. Therefore, I was very pleased that the Commission’s recommendations with respect of those two issues are consistent with my views. Since the Commission received more than 1000 submissions, I was even happier that the Report quoted my submission a few …

The ALRC Report on Copyright and the Digital Economy (and me) Read more →

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

Tagged with , , ,

The Varsity last Monday published a story with the headline “Post-Access Copyright era off to a rocky start“, and the sub-headline “Professors confused, frustrated by new copyright rules”. Great headlines, for sure, but in reality, that’s probably an exaggeration. My impression, which I have confirmed with colleagues in the UofT library system and the Faculty Association, is that so far the transition to the post-Access Copyright era has actually been even smoother than expected.

Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

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, they did.

Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

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?“

Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

Tagged with

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 …

Ottawa, we have a problem Read more →

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives

The late L. Ray Patterson, a copyright scholar, historian, and the author of important books on the history of copyright and the notion of users’ rights, had warned that copyright guidelines could be the Trojan Horse of publishers. Patterson referred to a particular type of carelessly written guidelines, those purporting to offer “bright lines”, and provide them by creating unnecessary limitations on users’ rights. The danger, Patterson illustrated, is that guidelines stating that to copy “1,000” words is a fair use, [imply that] to copy “1,050” words is an infringement. …[I]f librarians go along with [such] guidelines, why should not …

The AUCC Guidelines: another Trojan Horse? Read more →

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives

The University of Toronto, who, together with the University of Western Ontario singed an infamous license agreement with Access Copyright last year, decided not to renew the agreement. In a letter dated June 6, 2013 UofT’s Vice President and Provost Cheryl Misak notified Access Copyright of its decision. Prof. Misak’s letter mentions “the passage of the Copyright Modernization Act, the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2012 copyright rulings, technological change, changes in the scholarly publishing world, and the broadening reach of open access initiatives (among other developments)” as reasons behind its decision. In making this decision UofT follows the footsteps of …

The University of Toronto Leaves Hall of Shame: On the Road to Deserved Fame Read more →