Welcome to the blog of the Copyright Office at UVic
The University of California system has chosen not to renew their multi-million dollar subscription with academic publishing giant Elsevier. At the heart of the issue is affordability, and the ability to make UC research available open access.
Read more in the Berkeley News: In push for open access, UC breaks ties with publishing giant Elsevier & Why UC split with publishing giant Elsevier
…see Elsevier’s official response on twitter.
(via Matthew Hukulak @jmhukulak and Kim Nayyer @kimnayyer)
Join us at the UVic Libraries Digital Scholarship Commons for a public screening of the documentary, “Paywall”. Everyone is welcome. There will be popcorn provided!
A public screening of the movie will be held on:
Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Time: 2-3:30pm. Panel discussion to follow the movie until 4:30pm
Where: UVic Libraries, Digital Scholarly Commons
Please register at https://paywall.eventbrite.ca 
About the film: Paywall: The Business of Scholarship is a documentary which:
Produced and directed by Jason Schmitt, Clarkson University, NY
The film is also available to stream for free here: https://paywallthemovie.com/
*re-post of UVic Scholarly Communication blog October 5, 2018*
The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), signed yesterday, agrees to extend Canada’s term of copyright, to align with the current U.S. law. We have to wait and see how this agreement will be incorporated into Canadian Copyright Law.
Read the Intellectual Property Provisions here
As reported by CBC and Michael Geist October 1, 2018
Proposal: An Open Licensing Scheme for Traditional Knowledge
This is an interesting resource put forward in 2016 by Carleton University Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre & The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. A good summary of some of the issues around Indigenous Knowledge and the intersection of “western notions of IP” and First Nations principles of OCAP. Proposes a licensing scheme based on the Creative Commons Model, but adds layers such as community consent and reciprocity.
Via Meera Nair’s Fair Duty Blog, June 25, 2018
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology met with stakeholders from the post-secondary education sector yesterday as part of the 2018 Copyright Act review. Representatives from Universities Canada, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, and Campus Stores Canada spoke with the committee about Indigenous knowledge, fair dealing, library consortia licensing, Access Copyright v York University, open access and public domain, among other issues.
Watch a replay here.
September 28, 2017 – Canada’s Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly launches “Creative Canada – A Vision for Canada’s Creative Industries” – a policy statement promising reform with an emphasis on creators.
Update to this – Google has filed a suit in California court attempting to block this order, citing First Amendment rights and more:
Via Michael Geist’s blog July 26, 2017.
Supreme Court of Canada, in Google v. Equustek decision, requires Google to block a website from their worldwide search engine because of IP issues
Via Ariel Katz’s blog, June 29, 2017