Supreme Court Decision re: York vs. Access Copyright

Tue. Nov. 2, 2021

The Supreme Court of Canada recently released its decision in the longstanding copyright dispute between York University and Access Copyright.  It unanimously found that the copying tariffs offered by Access Copyright are not mandatory on users who do not wish to operate under them, so the action against York for "unpaid" tariff fees was unenforceable.  

While the Court thus did not need to directly engage with York's fair dealing counterclaim, it did reaffirm the importance of the six fairness factors, and commented that fair dealing analyses involving education must account for the intended use by students, and not only the institution's perspective.

UWinnipeg is committed to a fair and balanced approach to copyright and spends over $1.5M per year on library database subscriptions alone.  Faculty are reminded they should watch the Copyright educational video, which will be available in their Nexus accounts, and that the Copyright Office is available for assistance.  The Syllabus Service also offers full service help with assessing your reading lists.

Finally, faculty are reminded to first check the Library catalogue for articles or materials that may be assigned and, whenever possible, provide a link to the material rather than a copy.