Copyright User Rights and Access to Justice

University of Windsor Location

The University of Windsor Faculty of Law in Ontario, Canada is hosting the Copyright User Rights and Access to Justice Conference on May 18-19, 2017

We invite submissions from legal scholars as well as scholars in a broad range of disciplines, and particularly encourage submissions from PhD students, Post-Doctoral students, and Junior Faculty (appointed in the last five years as of May 2017). Limited funding may be available for selected PhD or Post-Doctoral participants to cover travel costs.

Selected papers will be considered for publication in a special issue of the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, subject to the journal’s peer-review process.

Submit your abstract (between 500 and 1,000 words) prior to January 31, 2017. 

Conference Synopsis

In CCH Canadian Ltd. v Law Society of Upper Canada, 2004 SCC 13, the Supreme Court of Canada stated that exceptions to copyright infringement such as fair dealing are “user rights”. More than a decade later, where do we stand in Canada and elsewhere with respect to copyright user rights?  What is the nature of copyright user rights and why does it matter? What does a historical perspective on copyright law and policy bring to our understanding of user rights? How may the law respond to constant technological changes as they redefine the rules of engagement between copyright holders, users and the public? Does the copyright regulatory framework give rise to access to justice constraints for copyright users that deserve particular attention? What remedies do users have against copyright holders and their distributors blocking their access to lawful uses of copyright works?

This conference will approach these issues from an international, multi-jurisdictional and interdisciplinary perspective, through copyright theory, as well as human rights,  property,  contracts, remedies, social justice and access to justice theories,  ask how international conventions address (or fail to address) the rights and interests of users; how historically, copyright law and policy were tied to access to learning and what light this might shed on the present; the extent to which copyright law facilitates or hampers its most commonly stated objective to incent the creation and dissemination of works of authorship, particularly in a world of digitized works and locks; and what remedies or reform need to be put in place. 

Confirmed Speakers and Commentators

Pamela Samuelson                                                            

Pamela Samuelson (Commentator) 

Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Berkeley (US)                            

David Vaver

David Vaver (Commentator) 

Osgoode Hall Law School (Canada) Emeritus Professor of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law in the University of Oxford, Emeritus Fellow of St. Peter's College, Oxford and former Director of the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre

Severn Dusollier                         

Séverine Dusollier (Speaker) 

Professor, Sciences Po, Faculté de Droit (France)

Users' rights in copyright as inclusive rights: a model for enforceability and sustainability of privileged uses of works

Ariel Katz

Ariel Katz (Speaker) 

Associate Professor, Innovation Chair - Electronic Commerce Faculty of Law, University of Toronto (Canada)

On the Partial (In)Alienability of Users’ Rights

Ruth Okediji

Ruth Okediji (Speaker) 

William L. Prosser Professor of Law, University of Minnesota (US)

Fair Use and its Institutions - Towards a Theory of Access to Knowledge

Myra Tawfik

Myra Tawfik (Speaker)

EPICentre Professor of Intellectual Property Commercialization and Strategy, Faculty of Law at University of Windsor (Canada) 

Encouraging Literacy and Learning: The ‘Learner’ at the Origins of Copyright Law in Canada

Pascale Chapdelaine

Pascale Chapdelaine (Speaker)

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law at University of Windsor (Canada) 

Copyright Users: Rights without Remedies?

Additional Information 

For questions about the conference or this call for papers, please contact Dr. Pascale Chapdelaine