Author: Stephanie Boulogne

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Bill to amend the Copyright Act in support of persons with a disability is currently under review.

Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Copyright Act (access to copyrighted works or other subject-matter for persons with perceptual disabilities), is currently in its second reading in Senate. The Bill attempts to bring our Canadian Copyright Act into agreement with the 2013 Marakesh treaty  adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), of which Canada is a member.

The Bill adds/amends language around reproducing material in a “format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability”1 and its intent is to “facilitate access for such persons to copyrighted materials while ensuring that the interests of copyright owners are safeguarded“2. Part of this would be accomplished by strengthening the language around bypassing technological locks and border restrictions, when in support of persons with a disability.

Howard Knopf and Michel Geist have expressed concerns about the language around the definition of the “commercially available” exception in the Act.

 

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UK copyright reforms include an exception that allows for text and data mining

John Kelly | Jisc | February 9, 2016

In 2014, the UK government introduced copyright reform which includes an exception which “permits any published and unpublished in-copyright works to be copied for the purpose of text mining for non-commercial research. This includes sound, film/video, artistic works, tables and databases, as well as data and text, as long as the researcher has lawful access”.

UK researchers must still have legal access to the material, such as a database license through their institution. A key point is that the exception includes a provision which negates contracts/license agreements that attempt to override the law and deny text and data mining. This means no more checking each institution’s database license agreements before embarking on noncommercial text and data mining research. However, DRM protection, to “maintain their network security or stability,” is still allowable, and researchers are not permitted to circumvent these measures.

For more, see: “The text and data mining copyright exception: benefits and implications for UK higher education”