FOR CURRENT INFORMATION, VISIT THE UBC COPYRIGHT WEBSITE: COPYRIGHT.UBC.CA
Historical Background (last updated March 2011)
The UBC Access Copyright Agreement outlines the circumstances under which students, faculty and staff of UBC are allowed to copy works without having to obtain permission. A brief summary of the Copying Guidelines has been prepared by Access Copyright; it can be found, along with other information, on the Access Copyright web site.
Access Copyright has designed the following copyright information brochures to help licensees share the terms and conditions of the license agreement with their students, faculty and administration staff, and librarians.
Proposed Tariff
The current agreement with Access Copyright expires on December 31, 2010. To replace this agreement, Access Copyright filed a proposed tariff with the Copyright Board of Canada on March 30, 2010. More information about this situation is available in the following article, the Copyright Conundrum. In addition, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) has prepared an Access Copyright Tariff – FAQs – AUCC.
UBC is now operating under the Access Copyright Postsecondary Education Institution Interim Tariff. For more information, visit: Proposed Access Copyright Tariff.
The Copyright Conundrum
A showdown between Access Copyright and Canadian post-secondary institutions could have a big impact on the way faculty members organize material for their courses.
Access Copyright is a Canadian copyright licensing agency. Its current license agreement for post-secondary organizations expired on August 31, but a number of universities, including UBC, have extended their current licenses to December 31, 2010.
Earlier this year, Access Copyright applied for a tariff to the Copyright Board, to take effect on January 1, 2011. If certified, the tariff would result in major changes to the current system, which affects post-secondary institutions across Canada (aside from Quebec).
For example, that system charges institutions $3.38 per full-time-equivalent student, along with a 10-cents-per-page fee for course-pack copying.
The proposed tariff, however, would see the fee rise to $45 per full-time equivalent student, presenting a big concern to post-secondary organizations that are grappling with tight budgets.
Other features of the proposed tariff include its coverage of a wide range of copying, including some electronic uses of scanned copies and copying for inclusion in paper- or digital-format course collections.
In June, the Board of Directors of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) met and agreed to challenge the tariff. UBC is supporting this challenge. Internally, the Office of the University Counsel is working with the UBC Library to analyze the feasibility of functioning outside of the tariff by relying on the large number of online database licenses to which UBC subscribes, as well as permitted uses under the Copyright Act. This could require significant adjustments to the way that UBC and its faculty, staff and students currently make copies of printed materials. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep our users updated on developments.
In the meantime, those institutions that decide to opt out of the tariff must have clear policies and communicate them effectively; must be able to justify copying and scanning under the Copyright Act; and likely will make more use of commercially produced course packs, links and licensed resources, and materials in the public domain or for which copyright permission has been granted.
Source: Insight: a Newsletter for UBC Faculty
For more information, please contact Sandra Wilkins.
