Daily Bulletin

UW has new copyright licence

It gives permission for copying that goes well beyond the "fair dealing" allowed under Canada's Copyright Act. While "fair dealing" allows someone to make a single copy of a modest amount of material for "private study", for instance, the CANCOPY licence allows faculty members to make multiple copies of an article for distribution to their students.

Permission is divided into two main categories. There's material for free distribution -- to be handed out to students, put on reserve in the library, used in administrative work, or sent to other institutions on interlibrary loan. And there's material that's to be sold, primarily in student "course packs".

As a fee for making copies that are to be used but not sold, UW pays CANCOPY $2.50 per year per full-time equivalent student (a total of $38,185 this year). For copies that are to be sold, a separate fee is charged: 4.5 cents a page this year, going up to 5.0 cents as of September 1. Graphic services will collect that fee when users bring that kind of copying to be done.

Either way, the licence imposes limits on how much material can be copied without special permission ("clearance"). In general, the limit is "10% of a Published Work", "an entire chapter which is 20% or less of a book", or "an entire single short story, play, poem, essay or article from a book or periodical issue (including a set of conference proceedings) containing other works".

"The licence still does not provide for digital copying," warns Susan Routliffe, head of user services in the UW library, who helps to administer the licence. It's essentially about paper-to-paper copying, although it does also have clauses about copying published material onto slides (in a new benefit this year, there's no special charge for doing that) and material in special formats for the benefit of disabled students.

She said CANCOPY and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada have task forces at work on the whole controversial issue of digital copying -- reproducing web pages, data bases and other electronic information. AUCC says it believes the "fair dealing" provision of the law covers digital copying as well as what's done on paper, but beyond that, it's up to the user and copyright owner to negotiate permission each time.

In another change in the new licence, copies of articles can no longer be assembled into "anthologies" to be given away or put on library reserve. Each article has to be kept as a separate item, except when "course packs" are being created and sold (and the cents-per-page fee is paid).

Items from a few publishers are specifically excluded from the CANCOPY licence, and certain kinds of material are not covered, including advertisements, letters to the editor, photographs, instruction manuals, and originals of artistic works.

The web page presenting the licence and related information notes that

By signing the CANCOPY licence, the University of Waterloo, the Federated and Affiliated Colleges and the Federation of Students provides indemnity from civil claims so long as the members of the community comply with the provisions of the licence. The University will not accept responsibility for breaches of the licence committed by faculty, staff or students of the University, and in the event the University is found liable, the University reserves its right to claim contribution and indemnity over and against such person or persons who have breached the terms of the licence.

'Computing directions' are offered

The proposed statement is an updating of an existing 1996 document, and the new one says there has been "significant progress" in the past two years towards the goals it set out. "However, many significant accomplishments are still on the horizon," it says, "and the rapid pace of technological change will continue."

Among the changes since 1996 are the creation of UCIST itself and the position of associate provost (IST); reorganization of what was three separate departments (computing services, data processing, and telephone services) into IST; introduction of Waterloo Polaris; replacement of the campus's thousands of telephones; and the beginning of several major systems projects. New guidelines on appropriate use of UW computing and communications facilities are being prepared, networks are being improved, and UCIST is working on "the list of standard hardware", with some public excitement when the possible end of support for the Macintosh was announced.

The 1996 report called for "adequate student computing lab resources", and things are moving slowly in that regard, says the new statement. "This is a management/political issue whereby certain Faculties and administrative units have not allocated sufficient resources to the provision of computing facilities. This has created inequities across campus and remains largely unaddressed."

Among the recommendations in the draft statement:

• UCIST should work to develop a campus-wide student computing environment, integrated as much as possible with the environment used by faculty and staff.
• Plan and coordinate teaching and learning infrastructure support, such as electronic classrooms, at an institutional level in conjunction with the development of the Electronic Workplace.
• Establish a University of Waterloo Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation.
• Departments should allocate approximately 2% of their operating budget each year on workstations (assuming all employees have workstations).

Three principles are at the heart of it all, the document says: " equitable access, efficiency and effectiveness, and harmonization of institutional and individual requirements".

Says a final paragraph:

For teaching and learning, we are suggesting significant development of the supporting infrastructure, construed quite broadly to include human, physical, and technical resources, as well as changes to the formal and informal reward systems for faculty and staff. For research, having identified three different categories of research users of computing, we strongly support provision of better access for general research use to the Electronic Workplace, and support of heavy users through provision and management of shared high-performance computing facilities. For administration, the current major information systems efforts must continue to be supported so that their successful implementation can provide better support to the core activities of teaching, learning, and research.

They'd love to save your life

Planning began early last fall for the championship, which is being hosted for the first time by UW. Waterloo has three teams in the running for the five competitions, which include first aid, priority assessment, fitness, National Lifeguarding Service skills, and water rescue.

Anyone wishing to be saved can phone Rebecca Boyd at ext. 5034 for details. She's also looking for extras to just swim and play in the pool from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday as part of a crowd scene. "They will not be rescued," she said.

The talk of the campus

Reminder: the financial planning seminar that was to be given at noontime today, sponsored by the Employee Assistance Program, has been cancelled.

A smoking cessation study is being carried out in the health studies department, and if you're a smoker, you're wanted. "Please consider volunteering to fill out a short questionnaire," says researcher Karin Neumann. "You could win a movie ticket for two. Questionnaires will be available at the Porter and Davis Libraries, Student Life Centre, The Bomber, Grad House, and main entrance of most UW campus buildings." The questionnaire can be returned to The Smoking Study in the health studies department, Matthews Hall, or dropped off in boxes at the Davis Centre and Porter libraries. For more information: Janneth Pazmino-Canizares at japazmin@healthy or Karin Neumann at kneumann@ahsmail.

UW and Conestoga College are to sign an agreement today to offer a preparatory "English Language for Academic Studies" option, aimed at students with inadequate English skills who are seeking to enter UW. Dignitaries will meet at 4:00 at the University Club to seal the deal.

Many other things are happening today. For instance:

• The Women's Association presents Catherine Fry of the ethical behaviour office, speaking on "Conflict Partnerships: Finding Healthy Approaches to Resolving Conflict", at noon in Humanities room 373.
• A rally opposing "the war against Iraq" is scheduled for noon in the Student Life Centre.
• The Student Services Network Group will meet at 1:30 in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre. Today's speaker: Peter Birch, of the employee assistance program at the Waterloo Region District School Board.
• Don Cowan and Colin Mayfield of the InfraNet Project will speak at 2:30 (Davis Centre room 1302) on "The Next Generation of Community Networks". Says an abstract: "We will describe prototype systems that have been created within local companies and the University of Waterloo to support community networks, including one in the Waterloo area. Organizing information for a community has substantial impact on the way we create and manage the underlying databases. . . ."
• The physics department holds a colloquium on "Modern Finance: Ideas and Opportunities" with Phelim Boyle of the accountancy school -- yes, I know that sounds strange, but it seems to be true -- at 3:30 in Physics room 145.
• Lynn Crosbie, author of Click: Becoming Feminists, a collection of writing by women about "their feminist conversion experiences", will read from the latter book and talk about her work in the reading room of the Student Life Centre at 7:00 tonight. (She'll be reading from her more recent book, Paul's Case, in the staff lounge at Wilfrid Laurier University at 4 p.m.) Crosbie's visit is sponsored by the women's studies program.
• Finnish architect Simo Paavilainen will speak on "My Theory and Practice" at 7:00 tonight in the Environmental Studies II "green room", as the Arriscraft lecture series continues.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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