Canadian universities, copyright collective brace for battle over intellectual property

By Diana Mehta. There's a battle brewing in the world of Canadian academia. On one side stands Access Copyright, a collective which has provided institutions access to a pool of protected intellectual work for more than two decades while distributing royalties to the writers, artists and publishers it represents.
On the other is a group of universities who no longer feel the need to pay for the services offered by the collective, opting instead to navigate the world of intellectual property rights without a middle agent. Simmering tensions are now threatening to boil over as Access Copyright takes one of Canada's largest universities to court — a move some see as a warning to others who've ended relations with the agency.
Access Copyright is claiming Toronto's York University, which opted out of an agreement with the collective, has improperly been reproducing and authorizing the copying of protected works. The issue goes beyond a single institution though. Read more...