Long-awaited draft legislation

Bill C-10, data collection deadline, Quebec bookselling campaign.

Executive Director's update

Even though this year is unlike any others, we can still count on the changing seasons. Your copyright collective has continued its activities, offering copyright management services and issuing customized licences to meet your needs.

Bill C-10

In early November, the federal government tabled Bill C-10, which provides a framework for online broadcasters and ensures that the Broadcasting Act applies to them. Copibec was pleased to hear Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault underscore the importance of promoting local culture. As he explained, “asking streaming broadcasters to do their fair share is not a luxury, it’s a matter of fairness.”

Indeed, in the interest of fairness, Copibec is continuing to push to have the Copyright Act updated as well. Content creators are still living with the consequences of the Act’s 2012 revision. Those amendments to the Act must be corrected so the stories of tomorrow can be told.

Quebec bookselling campaign

We applaud a new initiative launched by a group of Quebec associations and businesses to support our local book industry. Je lis québécois, a campaign launched on October 26, is intended to promote Quebec talent. It’s no surprise that the book industry has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This campaign was put together by 9 leading players in the book industry who decided to join forces. Among them are Copibec’s two founding associations: UNEQ and ANEL.

Go to the jelisquebecois.com site to find a bookshop near you or a site where you can order books online.

Data collection is ongoing

Some things haven’t changed! As was the case in previous years, November 30 is the deadline for the first reporting period in the data collection process for Quebec elementary and high schools.

Was your school selected to collect data? Teaching personnel as well as specialists such as librarians and resource teachers are required to report all the copyrighted content that they have photocopied, scanned or displayed onscreen since the start of the school year.

Copibec recently renewed its partnership with the Quebec ministry of education to allow teaching personnel to use copyrighted content in class. New terms of use are in effect to make remote teaching easier.

Do you have questions about the agreement? Please refer to our website or contact our Education team!

We’ll have more news next month in our last newsletter of 2020. In the meantime, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on what we’ve been doing and get the latest news in the arts and culture sector. You can also visit our LinkedIn page to learn more about copyright in the workplace.

Frédérique Couette
Executive Director

Copyright news from Canada and beyond

New bill covering Web giants

Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbault has tabled Bill C-10 in order to promote local culture by requiring Web giants to do their fair share. Essentially, Web giants will come under the jurisdiction of the Broadcasting Act. The last time that act was updated was in 1991.

Read the article from The Globe and Mail.

Access Copyright v. York University: Supreme Court will decide

The Supreme Court of Canada announced in October that Access Copyright and York University will once again be facing off in court. In 2017, the university lost its appeal in this case. The dispute dates back to 2013 when York decided to apply its own rules for fair dealing and immediately stopped paying royalties for using excerpts from copyrighted content.

Read the announcement from Access Copyright.

Quebec book sales are up

Even though the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) is worried that copyright royalties will fall by 35% at the global level, Quebec booksellers are actually enjoying higher sales, mainly online. The pandemic seems to have been a good time to catch up on reading for many of us who are looking for some relief.

Read the article from La Presse (in French).

Copyright in a business context

When it comes to copyright-protected content in Canada, the economic rights automatically belong to the employer if the content was created by an employee as part of their duties.

What are moral rights?

Copyright can be described as the exclusive right to authorize the use of creative content. However, that description leaves out an important component of copyright: moral rights.

Creative (...)

Major British media added to our repertoire

Quebec is experiencing a British Invasion when it comes to digital copyright. A wide range of newspapers and magazines from the United Kingdom now allow you to use and share their articles in (...)