Memorial University administration has decided not to sign a copyright agreement after consulting with students and staff.
The model licence agreement between the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) and Access Copyright met with strong opposition from MUN students.
The final decision was made by MUN’s Vice-Presidents Council on the recommendation of the university’s copyright action committee, said David Wardlaw, provost and academic vice president at MUN.
“As an academic institution, we are committed to the sharing and dissemination of knowledge, intellectual property rights, due payment of royalties to copyright owners and the fair application of copyright law. We believe that these principles are best upheld by not signing this agreement,” he said in a news release.
A number of other universities have also rejected the agreement, including the University of British Columbia, Athabasca University, University of Windsor, University of Winnipeg, University of Waterloo, York University, Mount Royal University, Trent University, and the University of New Brunswick.
The MUN students union is pleased to see the agreement rejected, said Erin Edwards, executive director of external affairs with the students’ union.
“Over the past two months, students have lobbied the administration to reject the proposed arrangement that is unnecessary, intrusive, and costly,” she said.
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Mark it is a bit of a challenge to explain in a short article, but you're right, not much info here. The agreement would have allowed Access Copyright to monitor emails between students and professors, raised fees from $3.38 to $26, and would claim to 'protect' the University with rights already upheld by the Supreme court of Canada. In essence Access Copyright is trying to bully educational institutions into paying outrageous per student fees as well as fee per page of information provided to students by professors, with the threat of legal action against institution which decline the horrible deal. Without exaggeration every group on campus representing students, researchers, faculty, and librarians spoke out against signing on, in the end their voices were heard.