Access Copyright Tariff Increases – Deadline for Comments Is Tomorrow
This is a follow-up to Gary Rodrigues’ excellent discussion about Access Copyright on July 26. Access Copyright has some proposed changes to its tariff before the Copyright Board of Canada. In contention: the high jump in fees per student in academic institutions, and Access Copyright’s definition of “copy” which includes uses already permitted under the Copyright Act.
Some good write-ups about the proposed tariff increase (from anti-tariff viewpoints): Michael Geist, Howard Knopf and Techdirt. I was looking for something pro-tariff not written by Access Copyright themselves, but didn’t see anything. Additional links welcome in the comments!
According to a June 2010 bulletin on the subject from Fasken Martineau,
This post-secondary tariff is the fourth tariff filing made by Access Copyright. The first tariff related to the royalties that should be paid each year by Canadian elementary and secondary schools (except in Quebec) for the right to make photocopies of books, newspapers and magazines in Access Copyright’s repertoire. The Boards’ decision with respect to this tariff was issued on June 29, 2009. The second tariff, as yet uncertified, relates to the royalties that should be paid each year by Canadian elementary and secondary schools (except in Quebec) for the years 2010 to 2012. Access Copyright’s third tariff proposal related to the royalties that should be paid by provincial and territorial governments for the reproduction of protected works. This tariff proposal, which will cover the 2005 to 2014 tariff period, is scheduled to be heard by the Board at a public hearing beginning on September 13, 2011.
Some key material:
- Access Copyright – Reprographic Reproduction by Post-Secondary Educational Institutions (2011-2013) (Canada Gazette Part I, June 12, 2010) – [pdf] made available from the Copyright Board of Canada website
- Access Copyright press release
- a response by Access Copyright about the proposed tariff
- presentation by Sam Trosow of the University of Western Ontario on Bill C-32 and the proposed Access Copyright tariff
- Canadian Library Association’s Tariff Objections (July 2010) – [pdf]
Deadline to submit comments is tomorrow, August 11th. From the Canada Gazette, here is the contact for submitting comments:
GILLES MCDOUGALL
Acting Secretary General
56 Sparks Street, Suite 800 Ottawa,
Ontario K1A 0C9
613-952-8624 (telephone)
613-952-8630 (fax)
gilles.mcdougall@cb-cda.gc.ca (email)
This impending rise in costs to the university student makes it even more important that universities work hard to ensure that wherever possible course materials are digital and are accessed by the student via links to the library’s e-resources. These are resources for which the universities have already paid the copyright tariff. There will always be students who do not have access to computers, but that number is dwindling; and it might well be cheaper for the student to acquire a $400 laptop than to pay the cost of a year’s course kits.
But according to some of the articles I linked to, Access Copyright is including these with the copies for which they want tariffs. So, it is in effect paying a copyright tariff twice for the same content.
Michael Geist’s article today Should Canadian Universities Walk Away From Access Copyright? raises an interesting question and has instigated a fair bit of discussion in the comments.