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Universities Agree To Email Monitoring For Copyright Agency
New submitter fish waffle writes "The universities of Western Ontario and Toronto have signed a deal with Access Copyright that allows for surveillance of faculty correspondence, defines e-mailing hyperlinks as equivalent to photocopying a document, and imposes an annual $27.50 fee for every full-time equivalent student to pay for it all. Access Copyright is a licensing agency historically used by most universities in Canada to give them blanket permission to reproduce copyrighted works, largely to address photocopying concerns that may extend beyond basic fair-use. Since the expiration of this agreement, and with recognition that many academic uses do not require copyright permissions or payments or are already covered under vendor-specific agreements, Canadian academic institutions have been united in opposing continuation of the agreement with the agency. Access Copyright has countered with a proposal for increased fees, and expansion of the definition of copyright to include linking and the need for online surveillance. In a strange breaking of ranks, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto have capitulated and signed agreements that basically accede to the licensing agency's demands. The Canadian Association of University Teachers bulletin provides detailed background on the issue (PDF)."
The agreement reached last month with the licensing agency includes provisions defining e-mailing hyperlinks as equivalent to photocopying a document, an annual $27.50 fee for every full-time equivalent student and surveillance of academic staff email.
What I find interesting is that for 27.50$ per year per student, they have a blanket permission to reproduce any copyrighted work (should I understand the summary correctly) ... That's such a small fee vs what people have had to pay for limited copyright infringements..
Not quite blanket. No music, and nothing that would reproduce the entire work, unless that work is short and/or monumental.
Quartz Extreme and Core Image. Are there any other real reasons to spend all that money on generic hardware?
Monitoring faculty email in this way may well violate the U of T's collective agreement with their faculty. I'm at another Canadian university, and I'm pretty sure it would violate ours.
If you're in Canada, you should have demanded your money back. They have no right to give your information away, or force you to sign it away like that. It's a violation of the privacy act. Hell, if you are canadian and are in Canada, and this happened I'd consider filing a complaint to the privacy commissioner over it anyway.
Om, nomnomnom...
Encryption should be used routinely (just because)!
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
Yeah, Stallman's The Right To Read may be getting linked a lot (for free, still) - but it is so apt.
Check your premises.
Via Ariel Katz, UofT Students and Faculty Demand Suspending the Access Copyright Agreement
I'm on faculty at a different Canadian university. So far, we've cut no deal with Access Copyright yet and I hope we stay strong. You can bet that I'm asking our union to keep an eye on the situation as it relates to the privacy rights of students and faculty!
Ironically, I benefit financially from Access Copyright, having registered as an author with them years ago when a colleague pointed out they were collecting money on my behalf, whether or not I made my claim against them. I'd much rather take a few hundred dollars out of their pockets to pass onto a copyfighting cause each year!
If my university does cave to Access Copyright, I'll cease using my university email. It'll be annoying to switch away from an address I've used for twenty years, but better than seeming to acquiesce to further indignities. I suspect that we'll see more and more academics exploring that option if Toronto and Western are setting a trend.
ancarett, historian and zombie gamer
More and more people at our university use gmail these days because it's more reliable than the email service the university provides.
-- Cheers!