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).