Following months of deliberation, Western University and the University of Toronto announced Monday they have reached an agreement with Access Copyright, a not-for-profit organization representing copyright owners whose work is used for academic activities such as course packs, classroom teaching and administrative work on campus.
Western’s previous five-year agreement with Access Copyright expired on Dec. 31, 2010. That deal saw the company collect roughly $10 in fees from full-time students, in addition to transactional fees for course packs and other photocopy rights.
Upon its expiration, Access Copyright did not negotiate a new agreement. The organization applied to the Copyright Board of Canada to set a new tariff, one that would encompass digital copying and cover the terms under which universities can use copyrighted works, all for a $45 fee for every full-time student. The university aimed to re-negotiate the proposed agreement with a final tariff ranging from $25-30.
Under the new agreement announced Monday, Access Copyright will collect, annually, from Western and U of T, $27.50 for each full-time student. The fee encompasses what was previously a separate 10-cent royalty for each page of a photocopy course pack.
“Western believes everyone in our university community will benefit from having the appropriate rights to copy both digital and written materials – both the users and the creators of the content – a situation that has not been properly defined and understood since 2010,” said Janice Deakin, provost and vice-president (academic) at Western.
The rationale behind Access Copyright’s rejection of renewed previous agreements with Canadian universities was the issue of them covering only printed works. The $45 tariff was necessary in order to cover rights associated with reproducing digital materials, and according to Access Copyright, so was a contractual provision that would allow for certain kinds of digital surveillance, including allowing the company access to the university’s secure networks, course collections and Western email accounts.
Even at the outset, this raised concerns with some in the Western community.
Sam Trosow, a Faculty of Information and Media Studies professor, cross-appointed with the Faculty of Law, said, following the proposal of the original revamped agreement, the surveillance guidelines set out by Access Copyright would be destructive to privacy. He also argued it would lead to controlling the conduct of everyone on campus because of a requirement to report all copied, emailed, hyperlinked, projected and displayed materials.
Once he heard of the new agreement, Trosow was just as concerned.
“I don’t like the secrecy. I want to read the agreement; the public has the right to see this document and the (Board of Governors) needs to make it available. They need to do this immediately,” he said.
Trosow explained the surveillance allowances under this new agreement haven’t been made public so as far as he knows, none of the above concerns have been addressed. He added he couldn’t fathom the reason Western and U of T entered into this agreement now.
“This is just terrible. It throws fair dealing out the window. And with Bill C-11 (Copyright Modernization Act) pending on the table, why wouldn’t they at least have waited until that passed? There are cases of fair dealing in the Supreme Court, and pending the outcome of these things, wouldn’t the (university) been in a stronger bargaining position?” he asked.
Deakin explained that under this new agreement, Western is working to develop a system that works for everyone involved.
“The parties will jointly develop a methodology to survey the volume of copying of copyright protected materials,” she said. “It is important to note that data collected to assist with the process of developing a survey of copying levels will be gathered in a manner that will respect the privacy of faculty and students, as well as the academic freedom of faculty. Reporting would be an agreement among the parties, and as such, it would not be a one-sided directive from Access Copyright.”
The new agreement is in place until December 2012 and could be renewed automatically thereafter for one-year terms or cancelled, given six months’ notice.