Category: Stationers

By Posted on Posted in Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers 1 Comment

The Copyright Board of Canada and that various tariffs that it certifies rarely attract media attention. But a tariff recently certified received coverage by most major media outlets. That tariff, mandating payments for playing recorded music in weddings and other events for the years 2008-2012, will be collected by Re:Sound, a private organization representing record companies and performing musicians. If the events include dancing, the fee is double. This unusual media attention, often describing the fees as a “wedding tax” or “dancing tax”, is not surprising because it reflects how undemocratic some aspects of Canada’s copyright system have become. If …

Copyright Taxation Without Representation Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers, Uncategorized No Comments

I received a copy of a document in which McMaster University provides answers to some of the questions arising out of its decision to sign the Model License with Access Copyright. Since many universities are grappling with similar questions and answers, I have taken the liberty of providing some responses to this document. The document is in a Q&A form, so I added my responses in green below each answer. You can read it here.      

By Posted on Posted in Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers 5 Comments

One of the questions that troubles many Canadian universities who need to decide whether to accept Access Copyright offer-that-they-can’t-refuse is what will be the consequences of not signing the AUCC-brokered Model License. One fear, which I have addressed in an earlier post, concerns the risk of being liable for copyright infringement in case that some infringing copies would be made on campus. The other fear is the possibility that the Copyright Board will approve Access Copyright’s Proposed Tariff, and that upon its approval, would become mandatory and retroactive. The precise effect of an approved tariff is a novel question and …

Keep Calm, Opt Out, and Carry On Read more »

By 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 …

Fair Dealing’s Halls of F/Sh/ame Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers 1 Comment

In April 2008, three publishers, Cambridge University Press, SAGE Publications, and Oxford University Press, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Georgia State University, alleging that GSU infringed their copyrights by allowing professors to upload excerpts from books onto the university’s electronic reserve system (ERes). The complaint alleged “systematic, widespread, and unauthorized copying and distribution of a vast amount of copyrighted works”, and argued that GSU “has facilitated, enabled, encouraged, and induced Georgia State professors to upload and post to these systems – and Georgia State students simultaneously to download, view, print, copy, and distribute – many, if not all, of …

The GSU Copyright Case: Some Canadian Perspectives Read more »