The Canadian government is looking to reform the country’s Copyright Act, this new legislation could have a profound impact on the ways and means archivists, interact with both their users and their collections when it comes to making the latter accessible to the former. Mrs. Nancy Marrelli, Chair of the CCA’s Copyright Committee, is working to inform the government, through the consultative process,
The ACA (Association fo Canadian Archivists) will be making a submission on behalf of its membership as a whole, and while hopes this will add weight and substance to Mrs. Marrelli’s effort, it will be equally vital if you, individually, can lend your voice as well.
Below is the plan of action that Mrs. Marrellihas laid out, please take a few moments to read her message which the key phrase is “that we are asking for amendment of the Canadian Copyright Act to include a technologically neutral access right to archival holdings, permitting archives to make archival holdings accessible to the public using digital technology, including the Internet.”
The deadline for such a submission is 13 September 2009, so I urge you to act quickly.
I wish to thank Mr. Paul Banfield, President of the Association of Canadian Archivists, for sending this message to all their members!
On June 20, 2009 the Minister of Industry, Tony Clement, and the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, James Moore, launched nation-wide consultations on the issue of copyright reform to prepare for the introduction of new copyright legislation.
As you know from earlier postings to this list, the CCA participated in a roundtable discussion with invited organizations in Gatineau and in a town hall meeting in Montreal in July 2009. A consultation website has been launched at:
http://copyright.econsultation.ca/http://copyright.econsultation.ca/topics-sujets/show-montrer/18
This website provides information on the issues and the government consultations, and provides direct access to the more than 1,000 submissions already received and makes it very easy for all interested parties to post their formal submissions, Anyone can make a submission by simply creating an e-mail directly on the site.
The CCA has made a formal submission that outlines our concerns and recommendations in detail. This submission is attached as a PDF for your information. The most important feature of this submission is that we are asking for amendment of the Canadian Copyright Act to include a technologically neutral access right to archival holdings, permitting archives to make archival holdings accessible to the public using digital technology, including the Internet.
To achieve this urgent change in the copyright law, it is important that individual archivists and all those concerned about archives participate in this consultation and make known our concerns.
The Copyright Committee would like to encourage every archives and every archivist to engage in this consultation process to deliver the archival community’s key message to the government. To assist you, the committee’s key message on copyright reform and the rationale behind it are set out below. Please use these points if they are helpful to you in preparing your own on-line submission.
This is a wonderful opportunity to make known to government the concerns we have about being able to provide effective service in the digital environment. Your submission can be short and to the point but it should reflect your concerns about this important issue and your support of the CCA key message.
If you wish us to review a draft, please don’t hesitate to e-mail it to me and we will send you feedback as quickly as possible.
Please ask all concerned colleagues, users and friends to support the CCA submission and the key message we are promoting at this time. Please share your submissions with the the list if you wish.
The deadline for submissions is September 13 so don’t delay. Let’s make our voices heard loud and clear!
KEY MESSAGE
Archivists are asking for amendment of the Canadian Copyright Act to include a technologically neutral access right to archival holdings, permitting archives to make archival holdings accessible to the public using digital technology, including the Internet.
And this is why we want this change:
- Archivists protect, preserve and make available the documentary heritage of Canada and its citizens for present and future generations.
- Traditionally the public has had to travel to our archival institutions to access this material. In the Digital Environment archives can truly come to the public rather than the public having to come to the archives.
- Archivists believe it is good public policy to not let the holdings in archival institutions languish in darkness because the public has no way of knowing they are available, or they have no way of traveling to the archives to use them on site.
- We seek a commitment from government to deal with the millions of works that tell the stories of our country and its people and that are hidden in archives because they cannot be reproduced or posted on archival websites for research because of copyright restrictions.
—
Nancy Marrelli
Chair / Presidente
Copyright Committee / Comité du droit d’auteur
Canadian Council of Archives / Conseil canadien des archives
130 Albert Street, Suite 501 Ottawa ON K1P 5G4
Tel: 1.866.254.403 or 613.565.1222 Fax: 613.565.5445
Direct telephone : 514.848,2424 Ext 7776
<http://www.cdncouncilarchives.ca>www.cdncouncilarchives.ca