CFLA Copyright Committee Update (March 2021)

April 13, 2021

At the March meeting, the CFLA Copyright Committee discussed the following activities:

• Preparation of a submission for the federal government’s CUSMA consultation, which seeks to mitigate the implications of the extension of Canada’s copyright term to life + 70. The term extension must take place by the end of 2022, and will align Canada’s term with the US and EU among others. The committee discussed the pro bono legal opinion received from Clark Wilson LLP to support proposing a registration system, sharing of the draft submission, and issues related to orphan works. All submissions will be made available online by the Federal Government.
• The Committee has four current working groups discussing topics related to libraries and copyright, which are gaining knowledge of emerging areas or working on background papers. These are: Crown Copyright, Controlled Digital Lending, Artificial Intelligence, and Accessibility. Most work was on hiatus this month due to the short timeline for preparing the CUSMA submission, which required intense effort by committee members.
• The virtual ABC Copyright conference is upcoming on May 5-7. The committee discussed the topics for sessions, and agreed to submit a proposal to give a short talk based on the OLA Superconference session.

On behalf of the CFLA Copyright Committee.

(Via CFLA Copyright Committee)