Category: Stationers

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Michael Geist reports that the International Publishers Association threatens Canada with WTO complaint over Bill C-11. The threatening letter mentions the explicit inclusion of education in the fair dealing provision and a few additional minor exceptions. The publishers allege that the provisions violate the Three Step Test found in the Berne Convention and other treaties. These allegations are baseless. If there are provisions in Bill C-11 that are more suitable candidates for challenge are those that are designed to allow Access Copyright (which represents many of the publishers whose organization sent the letter) to appropriate to itself the copyrights of …

Berne, Fair Dealing, and other Red Herrings Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers No Comments

I suppose that I shouldn’t have been really surprised, but I am. The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), which on its website calls itself The Voice of Canadian Universities, has just written to the Copyright Board that it withdraws its objection. Here’s what the AUCC writes (you can view the full letter here): On April 16, 2012 AUCC and Access Copyright agreed upon the terms of a model licence agreement which AUCC is recommending that its members outside Quebec enter into with Access Copyright. I enclosed a copy of the model licence agreement. The licence agreement that …

The Voice of Canadian Universities? Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers 3 Comments

Access Copyright and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) announced yesterday that they had negotiated a Model Licence that would allow universities to reproduce copyright protected materials in both print and digital formats. In a joint media release issued by Access Copyright and the AUCC, Paul Davidson, president of the AUCC, was quoted as saying “We believe that this negotiated agreement provides the best possible outcome for universities, their students and faculty.” Really, Mr. Davidson, Really? The Model License is quite similar to the unfortunate agreement that UofT and UWO signed a couple of months ago. Like …

The Best Possible Outcome for Universities, Really? Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers 6 Comments Tagged with ,

Earlier this week I participated in the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology Symposium on Orphan Works and Mass Digitization. I was part of a panel devoted to various solutions to the problem. Here is my presentation.   The Orphans, the Market, and the Copyright Dogma At its core, copyright law is based on a very simple logic–market logic.  The law grants limited exclusive rights in creative works, with the expectation that such rights will then be voluntarily exchanged in a decentralized market place. Whether we believe that exchange will provide the financial incentives for creating the works in the …

The Orphans, the Market, and the Copyright Dogma: Berkeley Orphan Works and Mass Digitization Symposium Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers 5 Comments

The University of Toronto Students’ Union, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, and the University of Toronto Faculty Association have just sent a letter to the University Governing Council protesting the UofT – Access Copyright Agreement. They urge the Governors to “suspend any further step towards ratification of the Agreement until the Agreement has been thoroughly reviewed, and, if appropriate, re-negotiated or discarded.” Update: Canadian Federation of Students sent a letter too.