ARCHIVED — Copyright and the Educational Use of Internet Content, Working Group's Report
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1. Background
The Issue
As the Internet becomes an increasingly important resource for students to explore and utilize for education-related activities, material is often downloaded, reproduced and communicated to the public within the school environment for the purposes of assignments, lessons, research and intellectual curiosity. However, there are often no details on the website clarifying authorship and terms of use. It is therefore possible that the use of materials in the classroom setting may trigger copyright liability. As the Government embarks on the reform of the Copyright Act, it becomes important to create an environment that would enable and encourage the use of the Internet in an educational context while fostering respect and compliance with copyright rules.
This issue is raised as a short-term priority for the Government of Canada under the umbrella of “Access and educational use” in the report entitled, Supporting Culture and Innovation: Report on the Provisions and Operation of the Copyright Act.1 As part of the Government's policy work, the Departments of Industry and Canadian Heritage have agreed to act as facilitators for meetings between organizations representing educators and rights holders.
December 2002 Consultation
In December of 2002, a one-and-a-half day consultation meeting was held to discuss the educational use of material on the Internet, in particular material that is “publicly available” or “freely available” and its impact on copyright. The consultation was well attended with approximately 50 participants from the education and rights holder communities. A plenary session was followed by sectoral break-away sessions, which were divided into three groups, corresponding roughly to equivalent industry sectors:
- literary and artistic
- music
- broadcasting and audiovisual
The purpose of the break-away sessions was to analyze the questions and options as set out in the previous day's plenary session, to further define the precise nature of the problem, i.e. what is “publicly available,” and to discuss possible options with a view towards next steps.
The Working Group and Its Mandate (Annex A)
During the consultation, the creation of a Working Group was proposed to further the discussion and fact-finding on the subject matter. As a result, the Departments set up a group of individuals representing the educational and rights holder communities, who agreed on terms of reference. The first meeting of the Working Group took place March 18, 2003, followed by meetings on April 8, May 5 and June 9, 2003.
1Supporting Culture and Innovation: Report on the Provisions and Operation of the Copyright Act
