Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Will AUCC Settle With Access Copyright, with UBC in Support?

The following announcement has just been made by UBC, whose President Stephen Toope at one point had seemed vigorously opposed to Access Copyright's proposed tariff:
UBC CONTINUES TO SUPPORT AUCC IN ITS NEGOTIATIONS WITH ACCESS COPYRIGHT
The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) has been in ongoing negotiations with Access Copyright to come to an arrangement that would meet the needs of its member universities and colleges. On January 30, 2012, the University of Toronto and Western University announced that they had entered into licence agreements with Access Copyright. AUCC is studying these new agreements to determine whether they contain elements that could be used to help AUCC and Access Copyright reach an arrangement. UBC continues to support AUCC in its ongoing efforts. Should AUCC and Access Copyright reach agreement, UBC, like many others across the country, would review that outcome to determine whether it meets UBC’s specific interests.
This seems to confirm concerns, as articulated by Sam Trosow, that "Access Copyright is hoping for a domino-effect, that other institutions will similarly abandon their opposition and sign a similar license."


So - should Canadian universities settle now on what are arguably significantly worse terms than the likely outcome of a hard fought Copyright Board case? Or is the best defence a good offence? Is a good offence even possible at this stage?


More to come in due course...


HPK

2 comments:

  1. "arguably significantly worse terms than the likely outcome of a hard fought Copyright Board case"...somewhat tortuous and highly qualified statement, this! I'm sure both sides are aware that a Board decision will not be either/or, that the SCC is likely to reject the CMEC appeal, and that as a compromise outcome is very likely, why waste time and money.

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  2. http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2012/02/uoft-faculty-and-students-fight-deal.html hmm UBC being a bunch of pushovers... will most certainly ratify it, and pass the costs onto domestic students.

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