In 2012 the Canadian Government passed the Copyright Modernization Act. It is the most current copyright law.
It can often be tricky to determine whether something you want to do falls within fair dealing. The Copyright Modernization Act (C-11) includes education as a fair dealing “Purpose”. Consequently, anyone using content for this purpose can skip to Step 2 to determine if the use is “Fair” as part of the two-factor Fair Dealing Analysis .
Ultimately, it will depend on your particular circumstances and you have to make a judgment call as to whether your use can be classified as fair.
STEP 1: CHECK WHETHER YOUR PURPOSE IS A PERMITTED PURPOSE
Are you using the work for the purpose of:
YES → Continue to step 2
NO → Check whether use is covered under:
STEP 2: CHECK WHETHER YOUR USE IS “FAIR”
Is the nature of the dealing fair?
Less Fair
|
More Fair
|
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Purpose |
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Commercial
|
Charitable /
Educational |
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Character of the dealing |
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Multiple copies
|
Single copy
|
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Widely distributed /
repetitive |
Limited distribution /
one-off |
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Importance / amount of work copied |
|
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Entire Work /
Significant excerpt |
Limited /
trivial amount |
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Effect of dealing on the original work |
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Competing with
original work |
No detriment
to original |
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Nature of the work |
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Confidential /
unpublished |
Published /
in public Interest |
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Available alternatives |
|
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Non-copyright works
available |
No alternative
works |
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Not necessary for
purpose |
Necessary to achieve
purpose |
Attributed via Creative Commons Licensing to:
The Fair Dealing Decision Tool helps teachers decide whether "fair dealing" permits classroom use of print materials, artistic works, or audiovisual materials without first getting copyright permission. It is very useful.
The University of Alberta has released a series of videos about Copyright in Canada.
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries has released several modules related to copyright in higher education. Each module consists of a short video followed by a short quiz.