Government delay on education-related copyright laws angers both sides

Ottawa’s announcement that it will neither build an education exception into the Copyright Act nor mandate a blanket licence scheme to deal with material found on the Internet and used in classrooms has erupted into a war of words between copyright holders and education stakeholders. The two sides issued battling press releases on April 15 as education authorities held a media conference to plead for an immediate amendment to the act in their favour. Two different copyright organizations issued their own pleas in the immediate wake of the press event, urging the government to reform the law quickly to create a payment scheme for materials used by teachers. The educators’ April 15 event outlined the same arguments they have been making publicly for over a year now, and decrying the government’s proposal to delay dealing with the issue (CNM, March 22/05). Jamie Muir, chair of the Council of Ministers of Education Canada copyright consortium and minister of education for Nova Scotia, told media that there is no excuse for delay. "My view…is that the last four years of extensive federal consultations on this issue provide the grounds for addressing the issue now," he said "The government of Canada is sidestepping this issue, and leaving the educational community in Canada in limbo." Also fighting for immediate action was his colleague Harvey Weiner, policy advisor and responsible for government and external relations for the Canadian Teachers’ federation. He used the media conference to tell the feds that: "The issues are clear. The nature and type of consultation that has taken place with various organizations including all of those represented here today is such that the government has all the information, all the perspectives available to it, and it must now, in our estimation, act in the public interest." The educators are fighting for an exception in copyright law that would exempt teachers from having to ask permission to use or pay royalties on material they find on the Internet while teaching in the classroom. Though some observers say current laws likely protect that activity, the educators are taking no chance. They argue the exception would be fair to creators. Weiner told the press conference, "It is important to define the parameters of negotiation. The organizations around this table are saying, ‘we are prepared to pay for all materials for which creators expect payment.’ But what should be excluded from that discussion, a priori, by virtue of an education amendment, are those materials that are publicly available for which there is absolutely no indication on the part of the creator by virtue of use of a credit card, technological device, password, copyright indication. These materials should not be part of a negotiation. They should be clearly part of an exception that would apply under the terms of the education exception that we are proposing." Creators disagree Copyright holders, however, disagree that an exception should be built into the act, and are urging the government, instead, to follow through on recommendations to create a blanket licence scheme that would remunerate copyright holders for the use of their works. That course was originally suggested by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage when it released its recommendations last summer, and copyright holders are upset that the measure has been left off the table in the current round of reforms (CNM, May 14/04). A group of rightsholders that includes publishers, authors, newspapers and writers issued its own media release on April 15 to win support for its position. Access Copyright, which has been supporting the coalition, says creating a blanket licence regime is the best way to put educational material on students’ desktops while ensuring that creators get paid. Maureen Cavan, executive director of Access Copyright, tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that blanket licensing is a practical solution to the conundrum. "(Teachers) don’t want to stop and purchase every time they want to get at something. What we’re saying is that all of that can be available to them without having to stop and get through a tech protection measure…By licensing the school, the school can have access to that kind of material, without having to stop and fill in information and do a check for permission or whatever. Nobody’s going to do that. But, they want the quality work from the good authors, and the good authors deserved to be paid." Cavan says Canadian authors are keen to publish their works online, and to make them available for educational use, but that current laws don’t protect them. She says the creation of education-only use space on the Internet for materials normally found only behind passwords and commercial sites could become possible once the Copyright Act is amended to protect the works. Details, she says, would have to be determined, but first the government needs to create the basic conditions to make access possible. "There are many ways of getting at (educational material), but we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place of ‘give it to us for free or else.’ It’s not right to take a living from the people who create the works. And so, the ‘give it to us for free’ is not an option, and the detail of how you access it under licensing can be resolved, but we haven’t been able to get into that kind of discussion with the education sector. Their preference is to get it for free." Another group, the Creators’ Copyright Coalition, released its own media release on April 19 echoing the coalition of writers and publishers. The broadly-based group, which includes acting, audio-visual, artists, composers, film and television workers, photographers and others, also urges the government to implement the standing committee’s recommendations. There are indications the two copyright holders groups are considering a common effort to fight the educators’ proposed exception. An email sent by the Canadian Publishers’ Council to a wide range of copyright holding groups notes that "It’s past time to get together to update, to compare and to strategize!! Where our positions don’t converge, obviously we’ll work independently. Where our positions do converge…we should work together as well as working individually. Rest assured that all of the sectors that hold strong views in opposition to ours are planning to work together! We have only a few weeks to influence the language of the draft legislation." The email invites the recipients to an April 21 meeting at Access Copyright’s offices. Despite the efforts of all sides to accelerate the copyright reform process in a direction favourable to them, it’s unlikely their concerns will be dealt with soon. Canadian Heritage copyright policy branch official Bruce Stockfish tells CNM that while there have already been numerous consultations, several options for resolving the impasse need to be explored. The government, he says, will not delay its proposed June deadline for the introduction of a bill in the House of Commons to settle the education matter. Canadian NEW MEDIA will have further details on that meeting as they become available.

Government delay on education-related copyright laws angers both sides

News | 04/29/2005 4:00 am EDT

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