Chapter 12

Filtering the Flow from the Fountains of Knowledge: Access and Copyright in Education and Libraries
Margaret Ann Wilkinson 

The Government Statement on Proposals for Copyright Reform declares that "[t]he Government supports the use of leading-edge technologies in education and research” and, therefore, that the proposed federal bill introducing copyright change “will propose certain measures that will facilitate the use of the Internet for these purposes.” This paper examines the background of the copyright reform process, the indicated directions of reform in the Statement, and the current state of the law; in doing so, it demonstrates that Bill C-60’s proposed amendments in the areas of interlibrary loan and education are ill-conceived—particularly in light of the attitude of the Supreme Court of Canada toward users’ rights—and either unnecessary or ill-timed. 


About the Author: 

Margaret Ann Wilkinson, LL.B. (U. of Toronto) 1978 was called to the Ontario bar in 1980. She practiced law in Toronto for several years and was subsequently educated as a professional librarian: BA (U. of Toronto) 1983, MLS (U. of Toronto) 1985. Her doctoral studies at the University of Western Ontario were supported, inter alia, by a Social Science and Humanities Research Council fellowship, and her thesis, “The Impact of the Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 1987 upon Affected Organizations,” won the 1992 American Society for Information Science Doctoral Dissertation Award. She teaches and writes in the areas of information law, intellectual property, information policy, information ownership and governance, and international protection of intellectual property. She has also done teaching, research, and writing in the areas of management, professionalism, and professional ethics. 

Dr. Wilkinson is a full professor jointly appointed to the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. She is Director of the Area of Concentration in Intellectual Property, Information, and Technology Law at the Faculty of Law. One aspect of her research includes employing empirical methodologies to look at the process of information policy-making. Another directly examines the legal responses which are shaping and have shaped information policy. These two elements, the empirical and the doctrinal, are currently combined in an initiative funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada in the Initiatives in the New Economy program. She has given many professional workshops in copyright to librarians and academics.