Access Copyright and the Proposed Model Copyright Licence Agreement: A Shakespearean TragedyProposed Model Copyright Licence Agreement • September 8th, 2021
The year 2012 proved to be a turning point for copyright law in Canada, with new amending legislation finally passed by Parliament and important decisions de- livered by the Supreme Court of Canada expounding on users’ rights to deal fairly with works for the purposes of research and private study. As the public battle on whether teachers could make photocopies for distribution to students was being fought by a coalition of primary and secondary institutions all the way up to the Supreme Court, a quiet war had been waged against post-secondary institutions in the field and was being settled privately. Canadian universities faced mounting pressure in early spring to sign a Proposed Model Licence with Access Copyright and many yielded on the basis of certain considerations that now demand further scrutiny: the pressure of timing, assumptions regarding the best means of mitigat- ing risk and a narrow calculation of what risk of litigation and liability might en- tail. The resulting contra
