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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 fact that others are NOT doing this means that people in Canadian Universities can change to a different University. Lucky people.
You'd think the Universities would be the last to cave in to a blatant demand for protection money.
Can they really be serious? Linking is equivalent to a copyright?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
How can emailing a hyper-link be equivalent to photocopying? When one photocopies, they then get a physical copy of a document. On the other hand, e-mailing a hyper-link provides no such physical object.
Here's how to circumvent the insanity: Email actual documents and then argue that *no* hyper-links were emailed as required by the stipulation. How about that?
Poor Google? How about poor Canadian WWW, almost every website that's hosted in Canada has at least one hyperlink to an external site, the contents of which are copyrighted.
This practice sounds like complete the opposite of the principles of scientific research.
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..
Use of encryption, and international email services on HTTPS, has started to rise in Canada.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
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?
Except in Canada you have to give them the right to monitor email or internet traffic as you do have reasonable expectation of privacy.
Simply have to refuse to sign any paperwork which gives them the right to monitor. If they do monitor and try to do anything then they are basically providing evidence that makes your lawsuit very easy.
One of the universities I attended had some BS clause about allowing them to give access of my information and documents to third parties as they saw fit. I argued it up to the dean and was eventually told that if I wanted to continue in the program, I needed to sign the clause.
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...
Actually, that makes me think... If they're monitoring your emails, start appending links to three random charities in each email, and demand that those charities get their cut....
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
I have a blog that I write and own the copyright on. Will Access Copyright send me my cut if a student happens to send a link to my blog to a friend? And what if they send a link to their own blog? Will that student now be entitled to a partial refund of their 27.50 Canadian?
Seems like this could be a revenue stream that bloggers may have to wake up to!!
How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?
Seeing as they contractually treat sending a link as making a photocopy, it would seem that you are now allowed to photocopy entire works under this new agreement.
Not a bad perk for the price increase at all.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
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
Haha, you think this extends to textbooks.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs