A User-Centric Case for Rights Reversions and Other Mitigations: The Cultural Capital Project Submission to ISED Consultation on Term Extension

Term extension is unlikely to benefit any but the largest of rightsholders, and indeed, in general independent creators typically do not benefit greatly from the promised financial exploitation promised by copyrights. This has been made even more evident by the COVID pandemic - while copyrighted works are consumed more than ever, independent creators have sunk further into poverty. We propose mitigation strategies for term extension that would help the people who are creating Canada’s cultural landscape, as well as additional actions that would alleviate additional current copyright losses.SSHR

The Lack of Competition in the Music Industries, the Effect on Working Musicians, and the Loss of Canadian Music Heritage

A Brief Submitted By: The Cultural Capital Project: Digital Stewardship and Sustainable Monetization for Canadian Musicians Presented to: Making Competition Work for Canadians: A consultation on the future of competition policy in CanadaIt is our contention that the music industries in Canada exhibit an oligopoly structure, formed of a handful of non-competitive, non-Canadian firms, which gravely harms both the livelihoods of Canadian musicians and the long term sustainability of Canadian music. Our research concludes the problem is not a consequence of anything unique to music as a cultural product, but partially a function of how competition is regulated in this country, or, more accurately, not regulated. Along with more rigorous enforcement of competition, we recommend that the Competition Act be updated to center the concerns of workers and consumers, which would have ripple effects on the health of many sectors in Canada, including music.Research contributing to this brief was conducted with a SSHRC gran

The Notion and Assessment of “Predatory” in Scholarly Publishing

We set out to create an openly accessible, transparent evaluation tool that engages with the nuance of publishing circumstances and creates a clear record of the assessment. Without redefining or seeking to categorize journals, we hope to provide information in a format that allows authors to make considered choices and librarians to record the efforts of labor they likely already engage in. Working with the inherent humor of meta-analysis, we created Reviews: The Journal of Journal Reviews (RJJR). RJJR will publish nuanced, context-centered reviews of scholarly journals based on available, observable evidence. The “Journal Reviews”—peer-reviewed evaluations of journals across disciplines, subscription models, and regions—will offer researchers an alternative tool for evaluating unfamiliar publications while also modeling contextual evaluation. We are dedicated to the process of journal evaluation as an educational tool as well as a resource for the community

How copyright impedes creativity and learning, and how Canadian Media Studies communities can take action

Open access. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0) applie

Finding Reliable Information: Beyond the Paywall

Learn how and where to find free Open Access research that is scholarly and trustworthy. Explore searching tips and tools for finding appropriate and relevant articles and publications

Copyright to the Rescue...or not.

This video is a recording of the keynote address by Brianne Selman from the Fair Dealing Week Event, "Creativity in the Arts: The Role of Copyright" which took place at the British Columbia Institute of Technology on February 25, 2020. The speaker was introduced by Stephanie Savage, Scholarly Communications and Copyright Services Librarian, UBC. This talk covered a collaborative research project that explores the history of the increasing concentration and corporatization of the music industry and investigates a new model of remuneration. Brianne describes this new model and the theoretical trajectories, legal ramifications, and technical components involved in creating a non-profit patronage system and social network that would directly connect musical artists and fans. Ideally the system would facilitate the payment of both artists and their fans for their creative efforts, while also crafting legal and theoretical arguments for a more open copyright regime. This event was co-sponsored by Simon Fraser University, The University of British Columbia, Langara College, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and Vancouver Community College.Non UBCUnreviewedFacult

La Millennium Library de Winnipeg a besoin de solidarité et non de sécurité

We argue that Winnipeg’s downtown Millennium Library’s aggressive and invasive security screening practices represent a threat to libraries across North America. Drawing on critical librarianship literatures, as well as anti-racist and criminological scholarship, we argue that moves to implement security screening in libraries flies in the face of best practices for public libraries, creates opportunities for racial bias and harm, and does not make patrons or staff safer. We trace the multiple ways that securitization creates harm for different marginalized communities. We then argue that Millennium Library is not alone in facing this risk, and that solidarity and mobilization by other librarians will be necessary to stem the tide on securitization. Nous soutenons que les pratiques agressives et envahissantes de contrôle de sécurité à la Millennium Library au centre-ville de Winnipeg créent un précédent dangereux et restrictif pour les bibliothèques canadiennes. En nous appuyant sur la documentation sur la bibliothéconomie dirigée par la communauté, ainsi que sur les études antiracistes et criminologiques, nous soutenons que la mise en œuvre de contrôle de sécurité dans les bibliothèques va à l’encontre des pratiques exemplaires des bibliothèques publiques, crée des possibilités de préjugés raciaux et de préjudices, et ne fournit pas plus de sécurité ni pour les usagers ni pour le personnel. Nous retraçons les multiples façons dont le contrôle de sécurité crée des préjudices pour différentes communautés marginalisées. Nous soutenons ensuite que la Millennium Library n’est pas la seule à faire face à ce risque et que la solidarité et la mobilisation des autres travailleurs des bibliothèques seront nécessaires pour endiguer la vague de contrôle de sécurité