Toronto, Ontario – March 8, 2016 – Canadian Publishers’ Council (CPC) members were deeply concerned by the recent decision by the Copyright Board in the 2010‐15 K12 Tariff. The Board ascribed zero value to the use of a vast repertoire of K‐12 Educational materials, denying compensation to the innumerable creators who rely on the K‐12 market for their livelihoods.
“It is difficult to understand how the Board could see no commercial value in the 179 million pages – the equivalent of almost 1 million books – that are routinely copied in schools across Canada. This volume of work represents the product of significant time and financial investment, by authors, creators and publishers, and the expectation that this community will continue to produce for K‐12 students with no prospect of compensation simply defies logic,” said CPC President Craig Swinwood, CEO and Publisher of Harlequin.
“Educational publishing in Canada has been declining since the Copyright Modernization Act (CMA) introduced a Fair Dealing exception for Education in 2012, and this decision all but assures that downward trend will continue,” added David Swail, Executive Director of the CPC. “We have seen significant players in the K‐12 resources sector exit the business – Oxford University Press is the best example – and this ruling will act as a further deterrent to investment in Canadian resources for K‐12 students. This doesn’t fit with a national strategy to broaden our knowledge economy through innovation, and for those who make their living producing resources for Canadian classrooms, it’s hard to see this level of uncompensated copying as ‘fair’ by any definition.”
The CPC has joined many rights‐holder organizations in calling on the Departments of Heritage, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development, to clarify the fair dealing exceptions, to restore balance between consumers and rightsholders as the CMA intended.
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About CPC
The Canadian Publishers’ Council represents the interests of publishing companies that publish books and other media for elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, professional and reference markets, the retail and library sectors. The Council maintains liaison with other Canadian professional publishers’ associations and represents the Canadian publishing community on the international level in the International Publishers Association (IPA) and is a member of the International Federation of Reprographic Rights Organizations (IFFRO). Visit www.pubcouncil.ca to learn more about the CPC.
For more information:
David Swail
Executive Director
Canadian Publishers’ Council
dswail@pubcouncil.ca