Background and Parties: The plaintiffs, including the Ministries of Education of 10 provinces/territories (excluding BC, Ontario, and Quebec) and Ontario's school boards, initially paid royalties to Access Copyright under an interim tariff for the years 2010-2012. However, the certified final tariff for 2010-2015 reduced these rates, prompting the plaintiffs to seek refunds for their overpayments from 2010-2012.

Legal Claims:

• Plaintiffs' Claim: They sought refunds for their overpaid royalties due to the reduction in the final tariff rates.
• Defendant's Counterclaim: Access Copyright argued that it should retain the refund due to the plaintiffs' continued use of copyrighted materials from 2013-2015 without paying licensing fees.

Legal Issues: Three main questions were presented in a summary trial:

• Whether the plaintiffs were statutory licensees from 2013 onwards.
• Whether they were liable in equity to pay Access Copyright for 2013-2015.
• Whether Access Copyright could retain the 2010-2012 overpayment.

Decision:

• The court found that the plaintiffs were not statutory licensees from 2013 to 2015 and weren't liable in equity to pay Access Copyright for those years.
• Access Copyright was not entitled to retain the 2010-2012 overpayment.

Conclusion: The decision ultimately favored the plaintiffs, granting them the refund due to overpayment and determining that Access Copyright couldn't hold onto these funds based on its arguments.

Total Amount Ordered: The plaintiffs sought a refund of $25,493,109.36 for the overpaid royalties during 2010-2012, and the court ruled in their favor regarding the overpayment.