Bizarre

Industry Canada indicated some good news in terms of education and Bill C-32:

For educational and training purposes, teachers and students will be allowed to use material that they find on the Internet as long as it is has been legitimately posted there by copyright owners without expectation of compensation.

For years, teachers in Canada have worried as to whether they can use publicly available material from the Internet in the day-to-day operations of educating Canadian students. I truly question why this is an issue at all – publicly available material should be self-evident as to its useability. But, Bill C-32 makes it less transparent. It all comes down to “expectation of compensation.”

In a section identified as “Work Available Through Internet,” we find:

30.04 (1) Subject to subsections (2) to (5), it is not an infringement of copyright for an
educational institution, or a person acting under the authority of one, to do any of the following acts for educational or training purposes in respect of a work or other subject-matter that is available through the Internet:
(a) reproduce it;
(b) communicate it to the public by telecommunication, if that public primarily consists of students of the educational institution or other persons acting under its authority;
(c) perform it in public, if that public primarily consists of students of the educational institution or other persons acting under its authority;

There are, of course, conditions. If one doesn’t give the source, and (if present in the source) omits to name the author, performer, maker or broadcaster, the exception does not apply. And this is good. Citation is a moral right and the backbone of academic practice. Teachers should model that behaviour.

Then comes the obedience to technological protection measures – the exception does not apply if the work, or the site from where it comes, is protected. This is not so good (teachers should still be able to apply fair dealing) but not surprising either.

And then:

(4) Subsection (1) does not permit a person to do any act described in that subsection in
respect of a work or other subject-matter if
… (b) a clearly visible notice — and not merely the copyright symbol — prohibiting that act is posted at the Internet site where the work or other subject-matter is posted or on the work or other subject-matter itself.

This seems to say that those who enjoy the open-ness of the Internet, can still choose to deny Canadian students from benefiting from that same open-ness. All that is needed is a notice indicating expectation of compensation. In which case, either Canadian teachers must leave the material alone or ensure compensation. Said another way, our choice is a hobbled Internet for Canadian students, or, the price of education rises.

A point that could be made is, this is the Internet – it has boundless opportunities. If some people do not wish to share, a multitude of others may fill their place. Those who choose to share should then be congratulated for their ethical stance, while Canadian school boards make payments to lesser individuals.

The more I think about this, the worse it gets. What will happen if the world realizes that there is money to be made from Canadian taxpayers, simply by labeling sites “do not use for educational purposes”? No technological protection measure is even needed. By virtue of national treatment, Canada would be obligated to render fees to foreign copyright holders, if their publicly available, non-locked, work was accessed against their wishes in a Canadian classroom.

As far as I am aware, no other nation has such a program in place, which means Canada will not enjoy any reciprocal fees when Canadian copyright holders’ works are accessed in foreign classrooms. And, even if such programs are in place, given Canada’s comparatively modest presence on the Internet, I foresee yet another deficit in cultural trade.

Was this clause deliberately included so that it could be jettisoned later as a display of compromise?

Publicly Available v. Fair Dealing

As I noted in my last post, asking for an exception to the law, to cover educational institutional use of publicly available material, poses risk to other Canadians and allows institutions to abrogate their responsibilities with respect to fair dealing. Furthermore, it narrows the possibilities of what can be done with materials obtained from the Internet. There are two issues entwined here.
1) When is fair dealing an option?
2) What might publicly available look like?

With respect to (1); just as copyright holders need not indicate the © to reserve their rights, a fair dealing enthusiast need not wait for an invitation to engage with a work. In the CCH Canadian ruling of 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada said, “Fair dealing is always available.”

It is inconsistent within our law to affirm copyright in a published work and simultaneously deny the possibility of fair dealing with that same work. At least for now…

Concerning (2); it would be prudent to consider what happened the last time an exception was requested for educational institutions. On the summary page of Bill C-61, Canadians were permitted:

(c) … certain uses for educational and research purposes of Internet and other digital technologies to facilitate technology-enhanced learning, interlibrary loans, the delivery of educational material and access to publicly available material on the Internet;

Paraphrasing from the exception:

30.04 (1)… it is not an infringement of copyright for an educational institution, or a person acting under the authority of one, to do any of the following acts for educational or training purposes in respect of a work or other subject-matter that is available through the Internet:
(a) To reproduce it;
(b) To communicate it to the public by telecommunication, if that public primarily consists of students of the educational institution or other persons acting under its authority;

But conditions were attached, and one was ingeniously crafted:

30.04 (4) Subsection (1) does not permit a person to do any act described in that subsection in respect of a work or other subject-matter if …:
a clearly visible notice … prohibiting that act is posted at the Internet site where the work or other subject-matter is posted or on the work or other subject-matter itself.

Meaning to say, all a copyright holder had to do to prohibit individuals within educational institutions from utilizing a work was to post such a notice with the work. In which case, legitimate applications of fair dealing would be voided simply because they happened in an educational institution. Mercifully, Bill C-61 did not come into being as Canadian law. If the exception had been implemented in this manner, then copyright holders would enjoy the privilege of copyright, while denying others the right of fair dealing.

Reference:
Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act, Second Session, Thirty-ninth Parliament, House of Commons. Canada. 2008.