Sep 28, 2009 - 04:30 AM

By Crystal Crimi

DURHAM -- The Durham public school board has been hit with an unexpected bill for almost $900,000 in photocopying costs.

For copying magazines, books, newspapers and other copyrighted materials, the Durham District School Board will have to pay a retroactive tariff increase to Access Copyright, following a decision by the Copyright Board of Canada. Access Copyright allows immediate legal access to copyrighted material for a fee.

The increase is being appealed by Ontario school boards and ministries of education throughout Canada, except Quebec.

"This will have a negative impact on our year end approaching," said Ed Hodgins, superintendent of business and treasurer, to the Durham District School Board at its Sept. 21 meeting.

No budgetary provisions were set aside in anticipation of the decision, he said.

The ruling, which was made at the end of June, impacts every school board in Canada outside of Quebec.

For Durham District School Board, it equals more than $733,000 in retroactive costs, which include about $59,000 in interest. It also adds $165,000 more to fees than anticipated in the 2009-2010 budget year.

"This is not a surprise," said Ajax Trustee Marilyn Crawford, one of the board's representatives on the Ontario Public School Boards' Association.

The issue dates back to 2004 when Access Copyright proposed a tariff of $12 per full-time equivalent student, which the school boards' association has been fighting for six years. A rate of $2.50 per student was established in the meantime.

In June, the Copyright Board of Canada set the rate at $5.16 per student, with a reduced rate of $4.64 for the 2005 to 2008 retroactive period.

"This is a significant increase in relation to what schools have been paying under the agreement," said Claude Majeau, secretary general to the Copyright Board, in a press release. "However, the total royalties represent only 0.05 per cent of the total costs in elementary and secondary education. The education system as a whole is perfectly capable of dealing with this royalty increase."

In all provinces except Ontario, it's the education ministries that pay the tariff and not the school boards, said Roanie Levy, Access Copyright's general counsel and director of policy and external affairs.

Access Copyright made the move to increase fees following a study which revealed the majority of items copied are textbooks pages, she said.

The Canadian-made textbooks are tailored to each province's curriculum, so they don't have another market to sell to, Ms. Levy added. Copying them without compensation would drive them out of existence, she added.

The fee is not something schools can opt out of, unless they demonstrate they never copy any protected work, Ms. Levy said.

The school boards' association is appealing the decision, but in the meantime has asked the Ontario Ministry of Education to pay the Access Copyright invoices sent to school boards so they don't get hit with more interest, said Colleen Schenk, the association's president.

"In the (U.S.), there isn't copyright charged on materials used for education and we'd like to see that happen," Ms. Schenk said.

She means no disrespect to artists, but it's not fair to charge copyright for learning, Ms. Schenk added.

"You want to put money into the classroom," Ms. Schenk said.

Trustee Crawford doesn't think the board can get access any cheaper, but the question is, who will pay for the increase, she said.

Right now, the Ministry of Education isn't saying much about the tariff, said Dayo Kefentse, ministry spokeswoman.

"This matter is before the courts so there's not much I can say right now about it, but we are looking at different options on how to address," she said.

The Durham District School Board plans to further discuss the tariff after the school boards' association's upcoming meeting.