Christopher Moore blogs about Claude Brunet's keynote at the Access Copyright annual meeting. While I obviously strongly disagree with the characterization of the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group, Moore's emphasis on contract rather than copyright is an important issue that is too often overlooked.
Post Tagged with: "access copyright"
Independent Report Blasts Access Copyright Over Lack of Transparency
One year after it was completed by University of Toronto law professor Martin L. Friedland, the results on an independent study on Access Copyright and royalty distribution system has been released [the report was emailed to me; I have not seen an online version]. The report is a stunning indictment of the copyright collective, calling for dramatic change in governance, transparency, and royalty distribution practices. Friedland begins by noting:
I have undertaken a number of other public policy studies over the years, including such reasonably complex topics as pension reform, securities regulation, and national security, and have never encountered anything quite as complex as the Access Copyright distribution system. It is far from transparent. Very little is written down in a consolidated, cohesive, comprehensive, or comprehensible manner. There is no manual describing in detail how the distribution system operates.
The report continues by examining the history of Access Copyright, comparing it to other collectives, and identifying inequities in the distribution structure. For example, it reveals that "in the distribution for 2005 under the federal government licence, the publishers received $188,256 for scholarly journals and the creators received nothing."
The report includes 20 recommendations for change, which include:
Access Copyright Updates Public Domain Registry Plans
Access Copyright has posted an update on its efforts to establish a public domain registry in conjunction with Creative Commons and the Wikimedia Foundation. It reports that it provided information on 300,000 works in September 2007 which has been entered into the registry database. A registry of searchable Canadian works, […]
The Letters of The Law: The Year in Law and Technology from A to Z
While I was away last week, the Toronto Star published my annual A to Z review of the year in law and technology (Toronto Star version, Tyee version, homepage version). From Access Copyright to Zeke's Gallery, there was rarely a dull moment in 2007.
Access Copyright Claims Copyright Reforms May Be On Hold “Indefinitely”
The Shoestring, a blog run by Magazines Canada, reports that Access Copyright has sent out a message to its members urging them to encourage Industry Minister Jim Prentice to introduce the new copyright bill. Access Copyright claims in the letter that "after a great deal of pressur from a protest […]
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