CFLA Copyright Committee Update (March 2024)

March 27, 2024

• Jennifer Stirling (special guest) from Mississauga Library discussed the recent work of the Joint Taskforce on eBook Sustainability which is exploring provincial legislative opportunities to support sustainable purchasing of electronic resources for publicly funded Canadian libraries. The Taskforce wanted CFLA feedback on which provinces offer the best option for advocacy efforts regarding their consumer protection legislation and government friendliness towards the issue of ebook sustainability.
• On the CFLA Copyright Committee’s recommendation, the CFLA Board endorsed the Access to Knowledge Coalition (A2K Coalition) letter dated March 5th representing educators, researchers, students, libraries, archives, museums, copyright academics, and other knowledge users and creative communities around the globe. This letter outlined the need for protection of broadcasting organizations; limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives; limitations and exceptions for educational and research institutions and for persons with other disabilities; and other matters including investigating copyright related to the digital environment and recommended more consideration of Generative Artificial intelligence issues.
• Crown Copyright Code of Best Practices is close to completion.
• CFLA submission to the Federal Government’s Consultation on Copyright in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence – written by the Committee’s AI & Copyright Working Group – is public on the CFLA website in English, and is currently being translated to French.
• The Accessibility Working Group document “Accessible Content: A Guide to the Canadian Copyright Act on Searching for Accessible Formats and Producing and Distributing Alternate Formats” is currently under a review and comment process.
• The PLR Working Group’s Public Lending Right Position Statement has been approved by the CFLA Board and will be published soon on the CFLA website. The Canadian Public Lending Right (PLR) is a system that provides payment to creators whose works are available in public libraries.

(Via CFLA Copyright Committee)