As renewal negotiations between the University of Toronto and Access Copyright continue, scholarly communications and copyright librarian Bobby Glushko aims to cultivate a positive culture surrounding copyright by creating an office that will assist students and faculty with barriers pertaining to copyright issues.
Glushko is a recent addition to the University of Toronto Libraries staff, and will be responsible for directing copyright work in the areas of education, policy work, and copyright outreach. His experience as an associate librarian at the University of Michigan, working in partnership with the lead copyright officer, will undoubtedly be a major asset in this regard.
The University of Toronto Library System, ranked third in North America after Yale and Harvard, does not currently have a copyright office. But there is a growing trend in North America of libraries providing valuable services to researchers, rather than simply existing as a space with stacks of books, according to Glushko.
The new copyright office will serve faculty members and PhD students who intend to publish articles and submit dissertations, respectively. Both these groups face legal barriers related to publishing contracts or copyright clearance.
In “The Future of Copyright” published in November 2010 in Information Outlook, Glushko cites legal precedents that expand the definition of fair use of intellectual property, which will hopefully contribute to the expansion of open access material at the university. Glushko believes libraries have the ability to define the way copyright affects us, and thus should be active in copyright law.
The Copyright Modernization Act, Bill C-11, passed June 29, 2012 by Parliament, broadened the scope of fair dealing in order to give educational institutions greater leeway in reproducing and displaying works in the university environment. This leeway allows users to make copies of copyrighted materials without requesting permission from the copyright holder.
Full-time students at the University of Toronto currently pay a flat fee of $27.50 towards Access Copyright, a not-for-profit organization that aims to a strike a balance between users of copyrighted materials and content creators through fair compensation. The senior administration at U of T is currently in negotiations with Access Copyright over the renewal of its contract, which expires at the end of the calendar year. The expansion of Bill C-11 and the evolving relationship between university libraries and copyright law thereof will have an effect on the debate surrounding the necessity of Access Copyright.
Glushko argues we should make reasonable use of copyrighted work; the library and university employ a variety of creators — and thus have the highest respect for copyright law — but, he adds, “respecting copyright law also means robust fair dealing — with respect for creators also comes respect for society’s use of copyrighted material.”
