As new Canadian Industry Minister Christian Paradis prepares to provide an update on the delayed Canadian digital economy strategy later today, Australia has released its digital economy strategy with a foundation of a national broadband network and eight goals that focus on issues such as health, education, telework, and the […]
News
EU Wants a Total Re-Write of Canadian IP Law
Stuart Trew reports on a call last week with Canadian officials on the status of the Canada – EU Trade Agreement. The intellectual property provisions remain a sticking point with the EU seeking “a total re-write of Canadian IP rules.”
Final Version of ACTA Posted
A new final version of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – formally adopted on April 15, 2011 and opened for signature on May 1, 2011 – has been posted online. ACTA will remain open for signature until May 2013.
The Access Copyright Backlash: Writers Union of Canada Calls for Collective Licensing Reform
The full motion passed at the plenary session of the TWUC AGM states:
RECOGNIZING that collective licensing of copyright is a vital interest of the creator community, but that creators receive an inadequate share of the revenues of Access Copyright and are unable to control how the copyright income raised in their name is managed
And RECOGNIZING that key differences in the copyright interests of publishers and creators will always prevent Access Copyright from fully and effectively representing creators’ copyright interests
MOVED that a solution is an operational separation of creators’ and publishers’ interests in collective licensing, for instance, by the British model of a creator-run distribution collective that controls and distributes the half of collective revenues that belong to creators.
And MOVED that National Council direct an investigation as to how this significant reform of collective licensing in Canada can be brought about at the earliest possible moment.
The motion apparently passed with one abstention and opposition from only three people, all Access Copyright board members.
Why The Situation Is Likely to Get Worse for Access Copyright (But Not Necessarily for Authors)
The Access Copyright’s Board response to the Friedland Report is one of the few public sources that breaks down its revenue and distribution (though it is no longer posted online). In 2005, its licensing revenue came from the following sources:
| Universities and Colleges | 46 percent |
| K – 12 Schools | 31 percent |
| Government | 14 percent |
| Foreign Reproduction Rights Organizations (RROs) | 5 percent |
| Corporate | 4 percent |
The percentages may have changed slightly, but there is every reason to believe they are fairly similar today. In the Access Copyright application for an interim tariff, it told the Board that “almost 50 percent” of its licensing revenue comes from universities and colleges.
The obvious problem is that Access Copyright is dependent on education for roughly 75 percent of its revenues. In the years ahead, much of this is likely to disappear. I’ve already argued that universities and colleges will increasingly walk away from Access Copyright as they pursue other licensing approaches for their materials (universities are spending over $100 million a year on site licenses via CRKN alone).
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