Publishers set sights on students, teachers in copyright review

With Canada's copyright laws under review, publishers are hoping students and instructors at the country's schools, colleges and universities will soon have to pay to copy all that reading material — even short sections.

Canadian publishers will broach the issue Thursday before a House of Commons committee tasked with reviewing the Copyright Act, which requires reassessment every five years.

The last amendments were made in 2012 under the former Conservative government. Those changes expanded the scope of "fair dealing," allowing the use of copyright-protected material for the purposes of education, satire and parody.

However, when it comes to the use of that material in the classroom, publishers feel the pendulum has swung too far.

"Those texts are being used and assigned. They have inherent value. Somebody has recognized that they bring something to the educational experience," Kate Edwards, executive director of the Association of Canadian Publishers, told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning.

"In order for creation to continue, and in the Canadian context, Canadian-specific works that speak to Canadian audiences, revenue needs to come back to the writers and the publisher."

Currently in Canada, short excerpts of work — typically, 10 per cent of the material — can be reproduced without infringing copyright. This means teachers, for example, can photocopy a poem, a short story or a chapter of a book for their students.

'Systemic copying of large chunks'

Michael McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, believes such a clampdown could come as a financial blow to students who need the material for their education. 

"I think it's been very clear that students and institutions are continuing to pay significant amounts for Canadian content, and content in general, each year," McDonald said.

Students who are exposed to excerpts in the classroom are more inclined to go out and purchase the material that interests them, McDonald added.

However, publishers say they're not going after those short excerpts. 

"Students copying a few pages in the library [is] not the issue publishers are particularly concerned about," said Edwards, who will be speaking at the committee Thursday.

"What we are going to be talking about ... is the systemic copying of large chunks of content, so a full short story from a collection, [or] a chapter of a book that are being used for instructional material."

The cost to Canadian content 

McDonald told Ottawa Morning he's concerned about an increase in university-administered fees students would have to pay if the rules change, which would add to the hefty tuition they already face.

What [this] means for Canadian publishers is less ability [to] invest in Canadian-specific works."- Kate Edwards, Association of Canadian Publishers

Publishers, he added, already enjoy healthy profit margins despite the law. 

Edwards, whose organization represents 115 independent Canadian owned publishers, said there are important conversation to be had about the cost of education. But students will also be affected by the inability of writers and publishers to create more Canadian content, she said.

"What [this] means for Canadian publishers is less ability [to] invest in Canadian-specific works. I think that has culture implications for students in this country," she said.

"To have access to the world of content and know that Canadian rights holders are being remunerated — that's a pretty good deal."