Some copyright law changes taking place in Canada may impact how learning material can be used in classrooms. The Western Gazette out of Canada brought this interesting information to our attention in their article, “Potential changes to copyright law could threaten use of class material.”
The Canadian Copyright Act (CCA) is up for statutory review this year, and its contents are being re-evaluated. This includes the educational fair dealing provisions introduced in 2013.
If educational fair dealing protection measures to be struck down, as many copyright holders are pressuring the government to make happen, then professors may not be able to use copyrighted works for teaching purposes without paying copyright holders.
Though changes are possible, many in the academic world believe amendments to the educational laws seem unlikely. Copyright is still as relevant as it was in the 18th-century. Without it, how would the intangible become tangible? The spirit of copyright protection is global, but copyright laws are applicable to each particular country.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
