Category: Access Copyright

As part of the 2015 budget proposal – the Government of Canada is proposing that artists/publishers retain copyright in recorded music for 70 years. This would extend copyright past the current 50 years. (via Music Business World)

Planning an upcoming course? This session will provide participants with practical solutions for delivering course materials in class and online while adhering to legal obligations. Please visit the UVic Copyright website to register.

Looking for copyright-friendly images for your next project? Check out the Library of Congress’ Prints and Photographs Online Catalognue. Full of fun and kitschy posters, many in the public domain.

This article, found via @Copyright_Agent on Twitter, discusses some interesting issues around copyright and crafting. The world of crafting understandably involves a lot of derivation and artistic inspiration, based on another crafter’s work, which is where questions of copyright can arise. Within the limitations of any media, there will be natural similarities between a product with artistic variations, such as a knitted toque. This article, while based in American law, provides some clarity for how to apprach this issue locally. As well, the rise of internet-based craft retail sites like Etsy has changed the scope and financial implications of intellectual property issues in craft.

Howard Knopf (http://excesscopyright.blogspot.ca/) and Michael Geist (http://www.michaelgeist.ca/) have begun to unpack Access Copyright’s responses to the Copyright Board’s questions from Feb.18th. The Copyright Board has asked Access to explain certain aspects of their board submission. I am particularly enjoying Access’s rationale behind attaching the copyright tariff to acts of linking/hyperlinking. Their response explains that linking is “telecommunication” and “making available to the public”.

If hyperlinking without permission is illegal, 99.99% of the internet is breaking the law. AC does concede a lack of evidence, and “has no objection to the Board removing this permitted use from the certified tariff”, but then goes on to provide legal justification for the inclusion of links and hyperlinks in the tariff.

According to #54 of the Board Submission, Access Copyright asserts that displaying a work on your computer screen can be defined as copying because “viewing a Digital Copy electronically (through a monitor, laptop, tablet, smartphone, e-reader, or other device) is the quintessence of digital copying”. Please discuss.

Dr. Lawrence Lessig of Harvard Law School, successfully defends his use of snippets of music from the Australian band, Phoenix, in his YouTube lecture. Via eff.org, @creativecommons

As reported by Creative Commons, the Google Image search tools now allow you to filter images by usage rights – making it much easier to find copyright friendly images for your teaching needs. Cool indeed!

Keep in mind, though, just because someone has posted an image, that doesn’t mean they own it or have the right to license it. Some websites are kind enough to grant permission for images they didn’t have the right to use in the first place. So for instance, the open-license pictures I just found of “the Fonze”, or Garfield, or Tony the Tiger – even though marked for free re-use – probably doesn’t belong to the facebook blogger who posted it. There is still room for a critical eye when using images on the web.

Here’s the Legalese: (from the Canadian Copyright Act)

30.04 (1) Subject to subsections (2) to (5), it is not an infringement of copyright for an educational institution, or a person acting under the authority of one, to do any of the following acts for educational or training purposes in respect of a work or other subject-matter that is available through the Internet:

• (a) reproduce it;

• (b) communicate it to the public by telecommunication, if that public primarily consists of students of the educational institution or other persons acting under its authority;

• (c) perform it in public, if that public primarily consists of students of the educational institution or other persons acting under its authority; or

• (d) do any other act that is necessary for the purpose of the acts referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c).

• (2) Subsection (1) does not apply unless the educational institution or person acting under its authority, in doing any of the acts described in that subsection in respect of the work or other subject-matter, mentions the following:

  • (a) the source; and

  • (b) if given in the source, the name of

    • (i) the author, in the case of a work,

    • (ii) the performer, in the case of a performer &s performance,

    • (iii) the maker, in the case of a sound recording, and

    • (iv) the broadcaster, in the case of a communication signal.

• (3) Subsection (1) does not apply if the work or other subject-matter – or the Internet site where it is posted – is protected by a technological protection measure that restricts access to the work or other subject-matter or to the Internet site.

• (4) Subsection (1) does not permit a person to do any act described in that subsection in respect of a work or other subject-matter if

  • (a) that work or other subject-matter – or the Internet site where it is posted – is protected by a technological protection measure that restricts the doing of that act; or

  • (b) a clearly visible notice – and not merely the copyright symbol – prohibiting that act is posted at the Internet site where the work or other subject-matter is posted or on the work or other subject-matter itself.

• (5) Subsection (1) does not apply if the educational institution or person acting under its authority knows or should have known that the work or other subject-matter was made available through the Internet without the consent of the copyright owner.

Via Ariel Katz and Howard Knopf on twitter:

Access copyright released a statement today announcing that negotiators failed to reach an agreement on licensing, and the University of Toronto and Western University will be relying instead on fair dealing guidelines, individual permissions, and other licensing for copyright clearance of their course material. We wish them well.