Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to address you this afternoon.
My name is Christine Middlemass. I'm the incoming President of the British Columbia Library Association, the voice of libraries in British Columbia. With me is Donald Taylor, our copyright representative for BCLA and a copyright officer at Simon Fraser University.
Libraries play a key role in the use, dissemination, and creation of copyright-protected works. We empower Canadians in their pursuit of lifelong learning, research, and innovation by preserving knowledge and by providing equitable access to information. The Copyright Act and its exceptions likewise underpin our mission. Libraries support Canadian creators by purchasing and promoting their works as well as by providing services and information resources for their use in the creation of their new works.
BCLA thanks Canada for maintaining the copyright term of life plus 50 years. BCLA likewise is in agreement with the fair dealing and educational exceptions in the act and with the 2012 exception for non-commercial user-generated content.
Kindergarten and post-secondary libraries are hubs for education, as are public libraries through their collections, literacy programs, outreach to new immigrants, and wide variety of community programs, from reading clubs to indigenous programs.
All library users depend on exceptions in the Copyright Act. For example, fair dealing for education or research allows instructors, parents, library patrons, and library staff to make copies for research and educational uses and allows libraries to send articles and other short excerpts to patrons of less well-endowed libraries as part of interlibrary lending. These activities enrich society and make education and lifelong learning a reality for all Canadians.
Many post-secondary libraries and large urban public libraries in British Columbia have makerspaces. The current fair dealing provision for non-commercial user-generated content in the Copyright Act allows library users to experiment and innovate in these makerspaces. Loss of these provisions will constrain their creativity.
B.C. libraries invest heavily in collections for their patrons. In 2016, approximately $29 million was expended collectively within the province of British Columbia on collections, both physical and digital. Definitely, the main increases were our digital collections.
Unlike printed material, digital works, such as e-books and online reference sources, are governed by licences, and all their uses, including reproduction, are governed by these licences. This often means that clauses in a contract override statutory rights in the Copyright Act. Libraries may not be permitted by the licence to lend to another library through interlibrary loans, and library users may not be permitted to print the pages. As these restrictions are barriers for our patrons to education, research, and lifelong learning, BCLA would like to see the Copyright Act stipulate that contracts cannot override exceptions in the act.
Technological protection measures, or TPMs, are also used to limit fair dealing and other statutory rights in library licensed digital resources. In order for libraries and library users to exercise their rights in the Copyright Act, BCLA recommends that the act be amended to exempt fair dealing and other exceptions from the prohibition on the circumvention of technological protection measures.
Digitizing and making available historic materials, such as photographs, postcards, and posters, to a wider public is fraught with copyright implications for B.C. libraries. The uncertain copyright status of orphan works, the fact that the non-locatable copyright owner regime applies only to published works, and the extreme difficulty of tracking down myriad copyright owners prevent cultural institutions from digitizing historic works of significant cultural and historic value to Canadian communities. Therefore, BCLA recommends that the Copyright Act be amended to clearly state that libraries, archives, and museums are only required to remove material if they infringe copyright when they had reasonable grounds for believing that their use of the copyrighted work was for a fair-dealing purpose. They should not be required to pay statutory damages. This change to the provision would protect Canadian educational institutions, libraries, archives, and museums, from being sued for digitizing orphan works in good faith.
According to Statistics Canada, Canadian publishers reported a profit margin of 10.2% in 2016. Canada is also the sixth most lucrative global market for streaming music sales and royalties. As well as being significant purchasers of Canadian content, libraries and librarians have long supported and participated in programs like the public lending right to ensure a vibrant Canadian culture. However, we believe copyright legislation is an inappropriate tool for subsidizing Canadian creators. Rather, BCLA encourages the pursuit of public and private programs, such as the public lending right, to help foster and remunerate Canadian creativity.
We strongly urge Parliament to maintain the amendments to fair dealing and the educational exceptions added in 2012.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak to you.