<div class="container"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-12"> <div class="welcome_user page_title"> <h1 class="page-header"> <span>Federal Court Finds in Favour of Writers’ Rights</span> </h1> </div> </div> </div> </div> <article data-history-node-id="1357" about="/news/federal-court-finds-favour-writers-rights" class="news full clearfix container"> <div class="content"> <div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-12"> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field--label">Author</div> <div class="field--item">The Writers&#039; Union of Canada</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-type field--type-list-string field--label-above"> <div class="field--label">Type</div> <div class="field--item">Press Release</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-body-text field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field--label">Body</div> <div class="field--item"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:16px;">Access Copyright Wins Against York University and Widely Used Copying Guidelines</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px;">July 13, 2017 — The Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC) is very pleased with the Federal Court decision released on July 12 in the matter of Access Copyright v. York University. The court’s decision fully supports Canadian writers’ right to be paid when their work is copied and used in Canadian classrooms and dismisses outright the education sector’s unilaterally defined “fair dealing” guidelines.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px;">“This is the win we’ve been waiting for,” said TWUC Chair Marjorie Doyle. “For years now, Canadian writers have seen huge amounts of our valuable work copied for free by the educational sector. The court has recognized the value of our labour and ordered fair payment for that work.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px;">Access Copyright (AC) is the licensing collective of Canada’s professional writers, publishers, and visual artists. The collective brought action against York University for unauthorized copying of work AC represents through both licenses and Copyright Board tariffs. As part of its defence, York asked the court for affirmation of its fair dealing guidelines, which claim large portions of published work for free and unlicensed copying.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px;">The court ordered York University to pay royalties specified by the existing tariff and dismissed the claim of fair dealing. The decision effectively declares the widespread educational copying guidelines to be illegitimate.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px;">“I believe all Canadian school boards, colleges, and universities have some serious rethinking to do,” added TWUC Executive Director John Degen. “They have been sold a radical theory that collective licensing doesn’t apply to them. The court has now declared that theory invalid. We look forward to rebuilding and strengthening our traditional partnership with education.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px;">Since the 2012 changes to the Copyright Act, Canada’s writers and publishers have suffered enormous losses of income resulting from educational claims of fair dealing. The full damage to both culture and education has yet to be measured.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px;">“Now we need the federal government to follow the court’s example,” insisted Doyle, “and eliminate the confusion within the Copyright Act. It was confounding legislation that brought us all to court in the first place. The law must be fixed.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="text-align: center;">TWUC thanks Access Copyright and all industry partners in this action for their dedication to the rights of professional creators.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:16px;">-30-<br>&nbsp;<br><em>The Writers’ Union of Canada is our country’s national organization representing more than 2,000 professional authors of books. The Union is dedicated to fostering writing in Canada, and promoting the rights, freedoms, and economic well-being of all writers.&nbsp;</em>&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px;">For additional information:<br>John Degen, Executive Director<br>The Writers’ Union of Canada<br>416.703.8982 ext. 221<br><a href="mailto:jdegen@writersunion.ca">jdegen@writersunion.ca</a><br><a href="http://www.writersunion.ca">www.writersunion.ca</a></span></p> </div> </div> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://writersunion.ca/news/federal-court-finds-favour-writers-rights" data-a2a-title="Federal Court Finds in Favour of Writers’ Rights"><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a><a class="a2a_button_copy_link"></a></span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article>