Welcome to the blog of the Copyright Office at UVic
May 9, 2019 | Via @howardknopf on twitter & The Ottawa Citizen
After years of confusing crossover of music licensing processes, the two major Canadian music licensing organizations, SOCAN and Re:Sound, have formed an alliance, to provide streamlined licensing via their new co-venture, “Entandem“. This will make it easier for creators and users alike, hopefully. Changes to come this summer.
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
Re: Copyright infringement class action by CopIbec against the University of Laval
via @kimnayyer @InbaKehoe
Since 2014, legal action has been taking place – in the form of a class action suit brought forth by Copibec, Quebec’s non-profit copyright collective, against Laval University. At issue is Laval’s choice not to renew a license agreement with Copibec, or pay tariffs, for educational use of copyrighted materials.
Some history on the case, Via Howard Knopf at Excess Copyright Nov. 17, 2014
This case has made its way through the court of appeal, and parties have reached a settlement, available on Copibec’s website. Amounts owing are in the range of $2M.
Via Plagiarism Today, and via techdirt March 07, 2018
Project Gutenberg, the not-for-profit host of public domain books online, is tired of getting sued by German copyright-holders, because the German public domain guidelines do not align with the U.S. copyright law. They have blocked German IP adresses as a simple solution. This is one example of how complex copyright can become when we deal with the international nature of online distribution, and why some trade negotiations are including discussion around harmonizing some copyright terms.
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
Howard Knopf’s thoughts on the upcoming Copyright Act review, associated regulations, and current cases.
http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/june-2017/once-more-into-the-copyright-breach/
Via Policy Options, June 19, 2017
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”
The Canadian Library Association, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, and the Canadian Urban Libraries Council have jointly prepared a statement in response to the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Our associations speak on behalf of Canadian researchers, students, educators and millions of others who rely on libraries for the development, preservation, and dissemination of Canadian content.
For more see: http://www.carl-abrc.ca/news/210/201/Canadian-Libraries-Response-to-Chapter-18-of-the-Trans-Pacific-Partnership-Agreement.html