In 2012, the Copyright Modernization Act mandated a review of the Canadian Copyright Act take place every five years, to ensure Canada’s copyright policy remains up to date in an ever changing digital environment. On December 13, 2017 the government launched the first five year review of the Copyright Act.
The parliamentary review is being conducted by the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. In a letter written to the committee chair by the Honourable Navdeep Bains and the Honourable Mélanie Joly, the two stress the multiple stakeholders involved and the balance between users and creators in Canadian copyright law. The letter mentions the need to promote Canadian creativity and innovation, while protecting user’s access to content.
Michael Geist, Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa, predicts the copyright review will take the majority of 2018. He believes the review may serve as foundation for future copyright reforms in Canada, but major reforms will likely have to wait until after the next election.
When the Copyright Act was amended back in 2012, education was added as an exception under fair dealing. Fair dealing is a user’s right to copy short-excerpts of copyright protected work for eight specific purposes, as long as the copying is deemed ‘fair’. Education being added as a fair purpose greatly benefits students, allowing instructors to copy short excerpts from works to aid in classroom settings. The education sector will be watching the parliamentary review in anticipation of how the committee addresses fair dealing five years later. To find out more information about fair dealing at Langara, view the college’s Fair Dealing Policy (B1013) and visit the Copyright Website.
Fair Dealing Week 2018 is taking place from February 26 to March 2. Tune in to the library’s social media pages to learn more about how fair dealing impacts your daily life, both inside the classroom and out.
The Copyright Office has just launched its first online tutorial, Copyright for Instructors, an interactive workshop to help instructors put together course content while remaining copyright compliant. You can self-register for the course through Brightspace by clicking on the ‘Self-Registration’ button located on your dashboard’s home page.
Questions? Contact copyright@langara.ca.
