Bill C-11 Committee on Feb. 28th, 2012
Evidence of meeting #4 for Bill C-11 in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was radio.
A recording is available from Parliament.
On the agenda
MPs speaking
Also speaking
- Bill Skolnik Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Federation of Musicians
- Don Conway President, Pineridge Broadcasting
- Ian MacKay President, Re:Sound Music Licensing Company
- Aline Côté President, Les Éditions Berger, Association nationale des éditeurs de livres
- Jean Bouchard Vice-President and General Manager, Groupe Modulo, Association nationale des éditeurs de livres
- Cynthia Andrew Policy Analyst, Ontario Public School Boards Association, Canadian School Boards Association
- Michèle Clarke Director, Government Relations and Policy Research, Public Affairs, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
- Claude Brulé Dean, Algonquin College, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
11:15 a.m.
President, Les Éditions Berger, Association nationale des éditeurs de livres
I'm sorry, but I had a good answer to that one. I want to come back on this.
11:15 a.m.
NDP
11:15 a.m.
Director, Government Relations and Policy Research, Public Affairs, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
I'm going to be very brief, and I'll give most of those seconds to my colleague. Online learning is very huge for the colleges and the 30-day provision does not seem realistic. It's not manageable.
February 28th, 2012 / 11:15 a.m.
Claude Brulé Dean, Algonquin College, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
Thank you.
We're trying to create lifelong learners in a primarily knowledge economy. The thought of destroying intellectual property to prevent someone from having that with them throughout their career in the marketplace, once they've graduated from an institution, is not seen by us as a reasonable or effective use of the resources. This is both for the learner, once they've graduated, who may need to continue to rely on that material in their day-to-day work in the workplace—
11:15 a.m.
NDP
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
11:15 a.m.
NDP
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
I just want to follow up on the distance learning, just to get my head around this. I'm a student at home. I'm watching my course at home, and there's a student in the class who's watching and the professor in the class plays a video. Is the student in the class supposed to tape the video? It's a copyrighted video. Is the student in the class supposed to tape what he or she is watching in class and carry that around with them for the rest of their life? The person at home, you're suggesting, can or should be able to do that. Should the students in the class who don't have the benefit of having taped this have that same right? Should students be taping their in-class portions and carrying it around with them for the rest of their life?
11:15 a.m.
Director, Government Relations and Policy Research, Public Affairs, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
I don't think that's what we're suggesting. I do think my colleague might have a perfect example to share with you with respect to how online learning actually occurs. Certainly, you have students, and there is the textbook element, there is the notes element, and there is the video element. Colleges pay for the use of materials that are copyrighted through licence agreements, whether that be through access copyright or through providers and publishers. But online learning is so huge in the post-secondary system that the expectations are that students, when they're in the classroom, can see the video. When they're at home, it's next to impossible to control what they're going to do with it. It's not necessarily that we're expecting them to make copies of it.
But I will ask my colleague to provide us—
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
That's my point, though. I've taken distance education, and the better part of a number of my last courses were at Carleton University. You're expecting that the student at home would have a greater advantage than the student in the classroom, by what you're saying. The bill contemplates the copyrighted material used, not the notes. Nowhere does it suggest that the professor or the student, after 30 days, needs to have a huge bonfire and destroy their notes and everything involved. What it contemplates is that if the copyrighted information that Aline Côté says is so very important needs to be reused again, it be paid for and reused again. Why is that such a problem?
11:15 a.m.
Director, Government Relations and Policy Research, Public Affairs, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
The students who are at home are not being treated differently.
Let me ask Claude to give you an example of how it is used at his college.
11:15 a.m.
Dean, Algonquin College, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
The idea is not to treat students differently between modes of how they learn. If the professor intends that the students have access to this material, he or she needs to make it available to all students, whether they're at home, on the other side of the planet, or in class at that time. How that's done after the fact is determined by the teacher and the technology available. There should never be an intent to treat the students differently, because that creates unfair learning elements in the classroom.
What we're talking about here are elements of copyrighted material that currently, under fair dealing practices, we're attempting to be able to issue multiple copies of in the classroom. The same could be said of a piece of video, for instance, that the professor wants to have the students work with to write an essay or dissect and report on. They need to be able to have access to this beyond the live class activity in order to do that work. It is not unfair to presume that they could have access to that in the same way they have access currently to the printed version. To us, it should be the same.
We're talking about two different modes: synchronous or asynchronous modes of delivery.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
But the debate seems to be that online or distance education will fall apart and collapse or become even less available because students are going to be burning all of their notes and teachers will be redoing their lesson plans all over again. That seems to me to be (a) not true and (b) completely unrealistic. If I'm a student taking the course and don't turn it off 30 days later, what stops me as a student from taping and giving a copy of that course to my neighbours because they are taking it next semester and telling them to watch it now and not worry about it?
What benefit would it be for you to never turn that course off? How is that a benefit to your institution? How is it a benefit to distance education learners? Will it increase the availability of distance education? If everybody is allowed to make a copy of your course and just disseminate it at will or put it on YouTube, how does that help you?
11:20 a.m.
NDP
11:20 a.m.
Dean, Algonquin College, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
I think we're not talking about the same thing here.