Dropping blanket licensing for educational content reform not enough: AUCC

The Association of Universities and Colleges Canada (AUCC) says the federal government must go beyond its decision to drop a controversial scheme to remunerate copyright holders when their works are used in the classroom to explicitly recognize educational use as an exception in the Copyright Act. On March 10, Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage chair Marlene Catterall said during a University of Ottawa lecture that one of its recommendations – a blanket levy covering educational uses of material found online – would be dropped from a series of reforms to the Copyright Act that are expected to be introduced into Parliament in the coming months. The act is being updated to give better protection to copyright holders in a digital environment, and new legislation will likely include a prohibition against cracking technological protection measures, a new notice-and-notice liability scheme codifying the current practice for ISPs, and other measures seen as necessary to implement before Canada can ratify World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties covering the Internet to which it is a signatory. One of the committee’s recommendations had been a blanket levy to cover educational uses, which would have put significant parts of the web off limits to teachers until boards of education sign licensing deals with collectives such as CANCOPY and others. But, says Steve Wills, a senior policy analyst with AUCC, dropping the education proposal from the agenda doesn’t go far enough toward building an actual exception into the law. Last May, the group joined several other education stakeholders to call for an exception in the act that would make "publicly accessible" material found on the web fair game for teachers (CNM, Oct. 6/04). Wills says, "We’re not absolutely sure," where that proposal is in the short-term agenda. But, he adds, dropping the blanket levy scheme won’t cause his group to back off. "Blanket licensing is overkill," Wills says, "but just because that’s been dropped from the current package is no reason to take the proposal off the agenda." He tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that the organization’s position in favour of an exception is consistent with recent Supreme Court of Canada rulings that envision limitations to the rights enjoyed by copyright holders – a reference to cases such as Théberge, CCH and others. In her speech, Catterall said the blanket licensing for educational uses of Internet material was originally conceived as a way to protect rights holders, but that the government was concerned that the measure might put educational uses at risk. "You’ll be relieved to know," she told the audience, "that this issue has been separated from the others." She added that the government is working with the provincial education authorities to explore "alternative approaches," though there was no indication in her comments that those might include the blanket exception being sought by the AUCC. Catterall also indicated that the government would have a response ready to the standing committee’s recommendations by the end of this month. It’s widely rumoured now that that response will become public around April 5. The response will likely give stakeholders a better idea of how the government intends to change copyright laws in legislation that Catterall said would likely be introduced later this spring. She also noted that further public hearings – "months and months" worth – will be held after a bill has been made public. The government, she said, is trying to arrive at a "final destination" of new copyright laws that respect the balance between users’ rights and copyright holder protection. "I’m confident we can put in place a made-in-Canada solution," she said in her speech.

Dropping blanket licensing for educational content reform not enough: AUCC

News | 03/22/2005 5:00 am EST

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