Archive for November 14th, 2012

Fair Dealing Consensus Emerges Within Canadian Educational Community

Four months after the Supreme Court of Canada issued its landmark series of copyright decisions, a consensus on the scope of fair dealing has begun to emerge within the education community. While Access Copyright has been sending threatening letters to institutions that seek to rely on fair dealing with claims that the decisions are being misinterpreted, roughly similar policies have now been developed by K-12 school boards, community colleges, and universities that plainly reject the views of the copyright collective.

As discussed in my post on the ACCC fair dealing policy, the breadth of fair dealing raises obvious questions about the necessity of an Access Copyright licence. All educational institutions already spend millions on licensed materials. Indeed, the Access Copyright study on K-12 institutions found that 88% of copying was permitted without the need for either an Access Copyright licence or reliance on fair dealing.  Given the scope of fair dealing as articulated by the Supreme Court of Canada, many are concluding that the Access Copyright licence offers little additional value to Canadian educational institutions.

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November 14, 2012 8 comments News

Canada Reportedly Ready to Cave on CETA Drug Patent Demands

The Canadian Press reports that Canada is ready to cave to European demands for changes to patent rules that could cost Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars in higher health care costs. The ministerial meeting on the remaining CETA issues is set for next week.

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November 14, 2012 1 comment News

CRTC Launches Online Discussion on Wireless Code

The CRTC has launched an online discussion to foster greater debate among Canadians on a new code for wireless services.  A public hearing is planned for next February.

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November 14, 2012 Comments are Disabled News