In recognition of Fair Dealing Week, educational institutions across Canada celebrate the Fair Dealing provisions of the Canadian Copyright Act. These provisions balance the rights of creators and users of copyright-protected content. As a user-focused exception, fair dealing facilitates the sharing of short excerpts of copyrighted works for the purposes of research, private study, education, parody or satire, criticism or review, and news reporting.
Since the Copyright Modernization Act of 2012, or Bill C-11, expanded the application of Fair Dealing to new contexts of parody, satire, and education, Fair Dealing has become an important option for students, faculty, and researchers sharing copyright-protected content. In the context of teaching, Fair Dealing broadens the range of course readings available to students. For instance, it enables faculty to provide students with readings for interdisciplinary courses and emerging fields of study where textbooks are unavailable. Fair Dealing also facilitates the analysis of short excerpts from course readings and media clips in the classroom. In the context of research, Fair Dealing enables faculty and graduate students to share the latest research, including data sets, with their colleagues.
Overall, Fair Dealing promotes the development of culture and education by facilitating the dissemination of intellectual and creative works.
Under Fair Dealing, you can provide short excerpts of copyrighted content to students and faculty via handout, e-mail communication, D2L, lecture presentation, and classroom display. Specific examples of short excerpts include:
- a copy of an article from a scientific, technical, or scholarly periodical;
- a newspaper article;
- an entry from an encyclopaedia, annotated bibliography, or similar reference material;
- a short story, play, poem, or essay from a publication containing other works.
Useful Links
- Fair Dealing Canada
- Canadian Association of Research Libraries statement on Fair Dealing and Copyright
- The Supreme Court of Canada Speaks: How To Assess Fair Dealing for Education by Michael Geist
- FAIR ACCESS: Strikes the right balance on education and copyright by Michael Geist
- Universities Canada Fair Dealing Guidelines
Fair Use Week in the United States
Note that Fair Dealing Week in Canada is a counterpart to Fair Use Week in the United States. Keep in mind that Fair Dealing and Fair Use are distinct legal doctrines. Follow these links, to learn more:
- Association of Research Libraries
- Fair Dealing vs Fair Use by University of Lethbridge Copyright Office
- Fair Dealing, compared to Fair Use by Meera Nair
For more information, see UNB Libraries’ Copyright pages.
Fair Dealing supports teaching, learning, and research!