Web site removes Canadian academic papers: Students win victory

OTTAWA - All Canadian theses and dissertations will be removed from the Web site Contentville.com after graduate students won a temporary victory yesterday over what they call "the commercialization of Canadian research."

Students, faculty and research library representatives who met at the National Library of Canada yesterday, were asked to decide between a temporary blanket removal of all Canadian academic work and an opt-out option, where students would have to request that their theses be removed from the site.

Contentville.com -- which sells a variety of written works, including books, wills and U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the Internet -- gained the rights to sell Canadian theses this summer through a subcontract with the company in charge of reproducing academic work for the National Library.

Stephen Biggs, a senior doctoral student in psychology at York University, will be glad to see his master's thesis off the for-profit site. His thesis was listed for the average price of US$57.50.

"I don't remember anyone asking our permission to sell the stuff in the first place, and what happened to 'public domain?' " he said.

Controversy erupted this July after some Canadian students inadvertently came across their theses for sale on the new e-commerce site. The students said they did not consent to, nor receive any royalties from the sales.

David Balatti, director of bibliographic services for the National Library, said Contentville does have the legal right to reproduce graduate student work.

All students who have written master's theses or PhD dissertations sign non-exclusive reproduction agreements, which give the National Library the right to "reproduce, loan, distribute or sell copies of my thesis in microform, paper or electronic formats" and "to authorize or procure any of the acts mentioned."

Mr. Balatti says some students may not remember signing the agreement (he has copies of them all on file), may not have understood the contract they signed, or may have been confused because it conflicts with their university's own contracts that say students' work can only be sold by the university with their explicit written consent.

The issue has reignited debate on how Canadian theses should be distributed, and whether for-profit companies should be part of the process.

The National Library contracted out reproduction to a company now owned by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company after federal government cuts to its budget.

In the last decade, Mr. Balatti says the National Library has seen its non-salary budget reduced by more than 35%, and allowing for-profit companies to distribute Canadian theses has "saved taxpayers millions of dollars on publishing and processing fees."