Athabasca University decides not to renew Access Copyright license

Athabasca University is an innovative, bold and independent  leader in distance education with a very sophisticated sense of the importance of copyright law and policy in the post-secondary milieu.

Athabasca is an objector in its own right in the current proceeding before the Copyright Board involving AC's attempt to impose a $45 mandatory tariff on each university student, which is a 1,300% increase over the expiring negotiated and voluntary basic license rate. 

It has just announced that it will not renew its Access Copyright license. According to Athabasca:

In order to protect students from a more than ten-fold increase in copyright fees, Athabasca University, like the majority of universities in Canada, has decided not to renew its licence with Access Copyright, a Canadian copyright licencing agency. The current agreement will expire on December 31, 2010.

Here's the full press release.

HK