Fair Dealing

About

The fair-dealing provision in the Canadian Copyright Act permits use of a copyright-protected work without permission from the copyright owner or the payment of copyright royalties. To qualify for fair dealing, two tests must be passed:

1. The "dealing" must be for a purpose stated in the Copyright Act: research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, and parody. 

2. The dealing must be "fair". In the case of non-profit K-12 schools and postsecondary educational institutions, the guidelines below outline what is considered "fair".

Guidelines

1. Teachers, instructors, professors, and staff members in non-profit educational institutions may communicate and reproduce, in paper or electronic form, short excerpts from a copyright-protected work for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, and parody.

2. Copying or communicating short excerpts from a copyright-protected work under these Fair Dealing Guidelines for the purpose of news reporting, criticism, or review should mention the source and, if given in the source, the name of the author or creator of the work. 

3. A single copy of a short excerpt from a copyright-protected work may be provided or communicated to each student enrolled in a class or course:

a) as a class handout; b) as a posting to a learning- or course-management system that is password-protected or otherwise restricted to students of a school or postsecondary educational institution; c) as part of a course pack.

4. A short excerpt means: 

a) up to 10 percent of a copyright-protected work (including a literary work, musical score, sound recording, and an audiovisual work); b) one chapter from a book; c) a single article from a periodical; d) an entire artistic work (including a painting, print, photograph, diagram, drawing, map, chart, and plan) from a copyright-protected work containing other artistic works; e) an entire newspaper article or page; f) an entire single poem or musical score from a copyright-protected work containing other poems or musical scores; g) an entire entity from an encyclopedia, annotated bibliography, dictionary, or similar reference work.

5. Copying or communicating multiple short excerpts from the same copyright-protected work with the intention of copying or communicating substantially the entire work is prohibited.

6. Copying or communicating that exceeds the limits in these Fair Dealing Guidelines may be referred to a supervisor or other person designated by the educational institution for evaluation. An evaluation of whether the proposed copying or communication is permitted under fair dealing will be made based on all relevant circumstances.

7. Any fee charged by the educational institution for communicating or copying a short excerpt from a copyright-protected work must be intended to cover only the costs of the institution, including overhead costs.