(Excerpts from Copyright Matters! and a Statement on Copyright 1)
Copyright is the legal protection of literary, dramatic, artistic, and musical works, sound recordings, performances, and communications signals. Copyright provides creators with the legal right to be paid for - and to control the use of - their creations. Copyright also provides exceptions to the rights of creators for users, like educational institutions, who want access to material protected by copyright. Departments and ministries [of education] across the country encourage copyright awareness in our school systems and respect for copyright agreements and the copyright laws that govern our country.
Provinces believe that in order to serve the public interest, the Copyright Act must balance two equally important rights:
- the rights of creators to control the use of their works and to receive compensation for such use; and
- the rights of the education and research communities to have fair access to created works.
Provinces acknowledge that the Copyright Act tries to achieve this balance by protecting the basic rights of creators while providing specific limitations to these rights where considerations of the public interest justify such limitations.
Provinces believe, however, that the present Copyright Act does not succeed in achieving this balance, but rather favours the rights of creators. The Act must be revised to allow education and research communities fairer access to created works, including limited rights to reproduce works for educational purposes.
For access to works to be fair, it must be on reasonable terms and at a reasonable price.
- Although teachers and researchers prefer to use works in their original form, circumstances (particularly time) often require them to reproduce the works they need to use. Conditions governing the use of protected works must be clear and flexible, so that teachers, students, and researchers are not plagued by uncertainties about the legality of their actions. Procedures for obtaining permissions must be simple and convenient, and administrative record-keeping kept to a minimum.
- The price paid by the education and research communities for access to protected works must be fair and reasonable; in certain limited exceptions, access should be free. In addition, where access to works is negotiated with a collective, the costs associated with negotiating and administering the agreements must also be fair and reasonable. The cost of access to works is of particular concern in the current fiscal environment, when the funding available for essential social services like education is limited.
The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada 2 and individual provincial and territorial ministers have an important role to play in determining the direction of copyright and the collective administration of copyright legislation in Canada.
The Council will:
- facilitate the sharing of information on copyright among provincial and territorial education authorities, and between those authorities and copyright owners' associations;
- regularly update the ministers and their various committees on legislative developments in the field of copyright;
- encourage the development within the education sector of a consensus on copyright that is based on a balance between the respect for creators' and users' rights;
- convey the position of provinces on copyright to the appropriate federal ministers and ensure that these views are widely known by the education sector when copyright legislation is introduced;
- encourage and facilitate the dissemination of current, accurate information about copyright laws and issues to educators, researchers and students.
Information
E-mail: copyright-droitdauteur
1. The 1995 Statement on Copyright was issued by the following jurisdictions: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward island, Saskatchewan, Yukon. Since 1999, all thirteen provinces and territories together form the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. In matters pertaining to copyright, all provinces and territories except Quebec collaborate through the CMEC Copyright Consortium.
2. Council members collaborate on matters pertaining to copyright through the CMEC Copyright Consortium. Ministers responsible for education in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut form the Copyright Consortium of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC). Quebec is not a member of the consortium.
