When will Canada’s education sector kick its incredibly expensive “free culture” habit?
by John Degen
(image courtesy me and my little camera)
In July one of Canada’s largest and wealthiest universities lost a landmark copyright case in Federal Court. No, that’s an understatement. York University didn’t just lose a court case — York University was soundly and embarrassingly schooled on every single argument it brought to justify the massive amounts of unlicensed copying it authorizes.
The court found, as a matter of evidence-based fact, that the university simply did not have the necessary licences, permissions or rationale (and that includes hopeful reference to the Copyright Act’s fair dealing provision) to copy the majority of the contested works it used in the course of its pedagogy. York’s defence didn’t so much fail as it was crushed into a tiny ball and drop-kicked from the courtroom.
