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16 May 2022CopyrightAlex Baldwin

Toronto university says tutor service ‘copied’ course materials

The University of Toronto (UoT) has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against a tutoring business that it claims “routinely copies” the university’s course materials and sells them to their students.

Easy Group runs an online story of tutoring materials and “coursepacks” containing lecture slides, course syllabuses, tests and exams poached from UoT and its professors, claimed the university.

The university, along with three professors who claim to have had their materials copied and sold by the service, is seeking monetary damages, the return of the copyrighted materials, and an injunction to prevent further infringement.

Speaking to the university’s own newspaper, UoT vice-provost Heather Boon said: “Our faculty spend hours creating materials for their courses that are often based on their leading-edge research. These materials are created for our students and for use in the faculty members’ classrooms.

“We will not permit private companies to make money from the unauthorized sale of our professors’ copyrighted materials. We are also concerned that this company creates a perception that the university and the professors have authorised the use of these materials and partnered with this for-profit tutoring service. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Joining the university as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Robert Gazzale, an associate professor of economics, Lisa Kramer, a professor of finance, and Ai Taniguchi, an assistant professor of linguistics.

Gazelle said: “I have devoted years to preparing materials for my students. To have a company profit from the unauthorised use of my intellectual property is incredibly wrong. It is theft. I am also saddened that tutoring companies are pushing the approach of trying to game the system, as opposed to trying to help students learn the material.”

The university reportedly met with an Easy EDU representative in October 2020 to discuss the infringement. Following the meeting, the tutoring company told the university that it would “ensure there is absolutely no copyright infringement”.

However, Easy EDU has continued to sell infringing the infringing materials, the university said.

The group claims to sell its materials to more than 300,000 students and boasts a 99.9% pass rate for students that enrol in the programme. It offers services to students of UoT, as well as other top Candian universities including McGill University, the University of Waterloo and York University.

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