A February 2016 ruling of the Copyright Board of Canada addresses s 70.15 (certification of tariffs) of the Copyright Act and, in particular, royalties sought by Access Copyright. The decision settled proposed tariffs in respect of reproductions in the K-12 sector, so does not directly engage law libraries or academic libraries. However, its relevance to CALL/ACBD and readers of this blog derives from its elucidation of fair dealing and the role of licenses.

Objections were filed to the proposed tariffs by all Canadian provinces and territories affected, and arguments were heard by the Board in 2014. Procedurally and substantively, the matter flowed from the outcome of Alberta v Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright), 2012 SCC 37, one of the 2012 decisions commonly known as the copyright pentalogy, and fair dealing guidelines published in response thereto.

The Board confirmed that tariffs deal with copying in the abstract and not with individual instances of copying. The Board also concluded it appropriate to base a determination of royalty rates only on those works that Access Copyright already has legal authority to license reproductions of, or those already in Access’s repertoire, and not works that could potentially be in its repertoire.

Michael Geist commented on the decision in a recent blog post.

Post written by Kim Nayyer