Universities push back against Access Copyright lawsuit | Quill & Quire

"Students, educators, and librarians have come out strongly in opposition to the Access Copyright lawsuit launched earlier this month against York University. The lawsuit seeks damages for the alleged misuse of copyright-protected works by educators at York, which opted out of Access Copyright’s collective licence in September 2011. (Q&Q reported on Access Copyright’s rationale last week.) In response, organizations representing the educational sector have accused Access Copyright of using bully tactics to force post-secondary institutions into purchasing a blanket copyright licence they say is no longer relevant. In a press release, the Canadian Federation of Students called Access Copyright’s business model 'obsolete' and 'archaic.' The Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents staff members at more than 120 universities, described the lawsuit as 'hopeless.' 'In a world of direct licences with content providers, open access publishing, and fair dealing, [Access Copyright] needs to stop its ill-considered lawsuits and focus on finding a new rationale for existence,' said CAUT executive director James L. Turk in a statement ... Others have described Access Copyright’s blunt legal approach as being out of step with the current copyright regime. 'Access Copyright is using a hammer,' says Brent Roe, executive director of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. '[The legal action] has the appearance of not just addressing some alleged breaches of copyright, but of attempting to break up the understanding that has been arrived at in the education community in the last year or so.'  Roe points to two recent developments that have shaped that understanding: the Copyright Modernization Act, which expands the definition of fair dealing to include educational uses; and a 2012 Supreme Court of Canada ruling, involving Access Copyright and the province of Alberta, that gives new rights to students and educators in using copyrighted materials for research and private study ..."