CFLA Copyright Committee Update (April 2021)

May 1, 2021

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

• The CFLA Copyright Committee completed and submitted a response for the federal government consultation on Copyright Term extension, jointly with CARL, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (French available soon) recommending that the government further investigate the registration option for the last 20 years, and providing suggestions to mitigate the impact of term extension (copyright term will be extended to life + 70 years in 2022). All submissions, including BCLA’s, will be made publicly available by the Federal Government. The Copyright Term Extension working group has produced a two page version of talking points from the submission to support conversations with federal policy makers.
• Another federal government consultation has been announced with a deadline of May 31, “A Consultation on a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries”. The committee discussed considerations for university, college and public libraries, and considered potential partners. We discussed the Consultations proposals briefly, including extended collective licensing and notice and takedown recommendations, and formed a working group to respond. BCLA will also respond to this Consultation.
• The Crown Copyright working group has discussed next steps for advocacy building on the recent comments in the term extension submissions. BCLA is involved with this work as provincial library associations are in the process of contacting their provincial governments regarding Crown Copyright.
• The working groups on Controlled Digital Lending, Artificial Intelligence, and Accessibility provided updates about continuing their work.

At its February 2021 meeting, the CFLA Copyright Committee discussed improving communication to the library community about what we’re working on. This message about current activities is the outcome of that discussion, and will be shared monthly. You are welcome to share it further.

On behalf of the CFLA Copyright Committee

(Via CFLA Copyright Committee)