Archive for August, 2010

Trosow on Access Copyright Tariff

A video of Sam Trosow’s recent speech on C-32 and the Access Copyright tariff proposal has now been posted to YouTube.

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August 12, 2010 Comments are Disabled News

Should Canadian Universities Walk Away From Access Copyright?

The Access Copyright tariff proposal that calls for a 1300% increase in fees to $45 per full-time student has generated some interesting discussion.  I noted in one of my responses that my courses only use openly accessible materials – court cases, statutes, government reports, and open access licenced articles.  This comes without any loss in the quality of materials and without the need for further payment or permissions.  I don’t think this is particuarly unusual for law, which relies heavily on these kinds of materials in addition to textbooks purchased by students and works in databases that are separately licenced.  The amount of additional copying in that environment that falls outside private study or research such that it requires a licence is tiny to non-existent.  Indeed, the inclusion of education as a fair dealing category would not change a great deal for thousands of Canadian law students.

While fairness dictates that Canadian education must object to the Access Copyright tariff proposal to ensure that students are not asked to pay for uses that the law says do not require compensation, it may be time for the post-secondary education community to ask whether it should walk away from Access Copyright altogether.  Note that I am not saying that creators should go uncompensated and that education should get a free ride.  I repeat that it is fair dealing, not free dealing. 

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August 11, 2010 64 comments News

ACTA Meeting Next Week: U.S. & EU Talk to Work Out Divide

Inside US Trade has an update on the ACTA negotiations that confirm many of the recent reports on a divide between the U.S. and the EU.  The article quotes an industry source as saying the other ACTA participants encouraged the discussion on issues such as geographical indications since “countries feared […]

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August 11, 2010 2 comments News

Access Copyright’s 1300% Tariff Increase – Deadline to Object is August 11, 2010

Howard Knopf has a must-read post on the Access Copyright proposed tariff that would increase costs by 1300% over the current rate.  The proposal is for $45 per university student, which would potential cost universities (and taxpayers) millions of dollars.  The cost for college students is $35 per student.  While […]

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August 9, 2010 68 comments News

Telecom Complaints Commissioner Remains a Relative Unknown

Appeared in the Toronto Star on August 9, 2010 as Telecom Complaints Commissioner Remains a Relative Unknown Hockey may be Canada’s national pastime, but complaining about the major telephone and cable companies sometimes seems like it ranks a close second.  Delayed Canadian launches of the latest phones, new caps on […]

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August 9, 2010 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive