A growing number of universities have announced they will not sign the model copying agreement that the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada signed with Access Copyright to cover the reproduction of paper and digital content on university campuses.
As of June 8, the agreement had been rejected by the University of British Columbia, the University of Winnipeg, the University of New Brunswick, Athabasca University, Royal Roads University, the University of Windsor, York University, the University of Waterloo and Mount Royal University.
“We applaud the decision of these universities to opt out of the AUCC-Access Copyright deal,” said James Turk, executive director of CAUT. “They made the right decision in the face of considerable pressure to do otherwise.”
Turk says CAUT has pledged to do everything possible to assist these universities — and any others that refuse to sign the agreement — in the event they are challenged.
“We feel the AUCC-Access Copyright model agreement harms the interests of academic staff and students, fails to reflect current law and undermines efforts to create better ways of accessing, using and sharing educational and research material,” he said.