I feel old. In fact, I always get the impression that I am referring to the past because it is difficult to talk about what will happen in the future. Within the framework of the work we have been involved with over the past few years, we considered certain amendments whose purpose was to make the work of teachers and students easier.
Earlier my colleague referred to three main areas, the first of which involved measures that would help teachers and students benefit from distance education. We looked at the possibility of a teacher giving a course to a class and using various works protected under the Copyright Act, interacting with the students even if they are not physically in the same classroom, and obtaining works over the Internet, without breaching the Copyright Act.
We also considered measures that would allow schools to acquire material protected under the Copyright Act and under a licence granted either by Access Copyright or COPIBEC. That material would allow schools to reproduce certain works under specific conditions. We looked at the possibility of those schools digitizing and sending that material to their students over the Internet.
The last area we looked at involved library loans. Once again, providing digital access to material makes the work of library clients easier.
Those are the measures that were considered and that are still on the table. These are measures that could make the work of schools, researchers, libraries, archives and museums easier.