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Access Copyright Confirms K-12 Schools Dropping Licence in 2013

Access Copyright has confirmed that schools from kindergarten to Grade 12 will be dropping its licence as of January 2013. The schools will presumably rely on fair dealing to cover copying that would have been subject to the licence.

5 Comments

  1. While I am no fan of copyright collective overreach, my main example being ridiculous attempts to levy SD camera cards for music, it is my hope that something constructive will come out of this.

    Education of our children is important, obviously, and to do so costs must be kept in line and freedom to use information in the classroom should not be hampered. The flip side is we want to have quality materials that, as appropriate, reflect our culture, values & history.

    The animosity between AC and the education sector was not accomplishing these goals well. The recent changes to the Canadian copyright act provides an opportunity to reset the narrative and find workable solutions. I hope this will not just turn into a cost saving effort from the education sector nor lead to another drawn out round of unproductive litigation.

    I encourage both parties to put aside their differences and move forward. While employment for Canadian creators should be a consideration the main goal should be to provide a quality education for our children with materials that are effective and relevant in a Canadian context. Let’s find the best way to accomplish this in a constructive rather than divisive manner.

  2. I think you can safely assume that this will lead to litigation. If the schools just walk away, AC has nothing to lose by challenging them at the political level (Ministers said that this wasn’t the intention of the new legislation), at the Copyright Board and, as soon as they can get it there, at the Supreme Court.

  3. Robert Smits says:

    AC deserves to lose
    Any collective that has relied for much of it’s past business by overstating what it provides and lying about the need for such a collective licence deserves to have an uprising by the authours it represents. They’d get farther ahead by dealing honestly with educational institutions and by a wholesale dumping of their present board.

  4. Regardless of where AC takes this debate, they will have to contend with fair dealing. They can ignore it all they want, but any action or application will ultimately hinge on an interpretation of fair dealing, and I don’t believe AC can handle the fallout.

  5. kindergarten school
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