Fair Dealing by Giulia Forsythe (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dRkXwP

Fair Dealing by Giulia Forsythe (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dRkXwP

Copyright

Canadian Rules Rain on Cloud Music Parade

Appeared in the Toronto Star on June 12, 2011 as Forecast Iffy for Music Cloud Services in Canada Apple has once again captured the attention of the Internet world with the unveiling of the iCloud, an online backup system that will allow users to instantly store their content on Apple […]

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June 14, 2011 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

Governments Respond to UN Report On Three Strikes Violating International Law

More than 40 countries and delegations have responded at the Human Rights Council to the recent United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression report that criticizes three strikes/graduated response system. The response, which includes Canada as a co-signer, underscores […]

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June 13, 2011 3 comments News

Access Copyright Claims Pay-Per-Use Licences Create Incentive to Infringe

Access Copyright has issued a response to the AUCC complaint over its decision to stop issuing pay-per-use or transactional licences. The complaint arises from requests from universities to license individual works so that they can be used with payment and without risk of copyright infringement. Access Copyright is refusing to issue such licences, offering only a more expensive blanket licence that requires universities to license use of the entire repertoire. The Access Copyright response bizarrely claims that pay-per-use licences actually create incentives to infringe and that blanket licences are more appropriate in the digital economy. Never mind that Access Copyright offers transactional licences to corporate customers. Never mind that millions of cultural products are licensed individually and that the Internet and new technologies make it easier to do so. 

According to Access Copyright, since copying is now easier, a blanket licence is needed to guard against any potential uncompensated use:

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June 10, 2011 30 comments News

“A Gross Abuse of the Collective Administration of Copyright”

Howard Knopf reports that the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) has filed an application to amend the Access Copyright interim tariff requiring it grant transactional or pay-per-use licences upon request. As I reported last month, Access Copyright has been denying requests by universities for transactional licences in an effort to pressure universities to force them to licence all digital materials for a far higher price. This results in a remarkable situation where universities attempt to pay to use works and Access Copyright says it won’t take their money (though it does offer pay-per-use for corporate customers).

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June 9, 2011 29 comments News

The Copyright Pressure Points: What Next for Canadian Copyright

The government delivered its Speech from the Throne on Friday, which included a commitment to “introduce and seek swift passage of copyright legislation that balances the needs of creators and users.” This should come as no surprise – as I posted last month, the reintroduction of Bill C-32 is by […]

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June 6, 2011 10 comments News