Decade-long struggle to get paid continues for Canadian creators as York litigation heads to the Supreme Court of Canada

Thursday, October 15, 2020

TORONTO [October 15, 2020] – The Supreme Court of Canada announced today that it will hear the appeals of both Access Copyright and York University in the litigation between the two parties that began in 2013.

This decision is another chapter in a decade-long struggle by creators and publishers to be fairly paid for the copying and use of their works by the education sector. As a result of the sector’s self-interpretation of changes made to the fair dealing sections of the Copyright Act in 2012, they adopted and have continued to follow copying guidelines that have resulted in hundreds of millions of pages of copyright-protected works being copied per year without payment. Both the Federal Court at trial and the Federal Court of Appeal determined these self-interpreted guidelines are not fair in either their terms or application. To date, Canada’s creators and publishers have been deprived of over $150 million in royalties owed to them by the education sector under tariffs approved by the Copyright Board of Canada that the sector has overwhelmingly refused to pay.

This protracted legal proceeding is reflective of a copyright system that users have badly broken. This wasn’t always so. Prior to the changes to the Copyright Act in 2012, through collective licensing and a functioning tariff system, educational institutions paid creators and publishers for the works they copied.

At a time when our country is focused on economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19, our creative sector has been hit harder as a result of the education sector’s refusal to pay for the use of creators’ works. The federal government needs to take decisive action to remove any uncertainty surrounding our copyright laws and restore a well-functioning marketplace for copyright-protected works that is predictable and transparent where creators can be paid fairly and promptly.

“Canadian creators and publishers have been deprived of fair payment by the education sector for almost a decade,” said Roanie Levy, President & CEO of Access Copyright. “COVID-19 has made the wound of not being paid even more painful. Our copyright system is not working. It is fraught with uncertainty and the federal government needs to roll up its sleeves and take immediate action.”

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About Access Copyright

For over 30 years, Access Copyright has facilitated content use for educational and professional purposes. Access Copyright has helped people make customized use of published materials combined with an assurance that the original creators and publishers also benefit, so that they can continue creating new and innovative works. This is vitally important to a strong Canadian culture and to all who rely on quality publications.

For general media inquiries:

Amy Cormier, Head of Communications and Marketing, acormier@accesscopyright.ca