Copyright & You

The Fair Dealing Exception in the Copyright Act states a work used for the purpose of research, private study, education, parody or satire does not infringe copyright. To qualify for fair dealing, two tests must be passed. The "dealing" must be for a purpose stated in the Copyright Act and it must be considered "fair". 

The Supreme Court of Canada provides guidance for educational institutions that include:

• Short excerpts from a copyright-protected work may be used by teachers, instructors, professors and staff members in paper or electronic form for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire or parody.
• When using the short excerpt for news reporting, criticism or review you must mention the source and, if given in the source, the name of the author or creator of the work.
• A copy of a short excerpt from a copyright-protected work may be provided or communicated to each student enrolled in a class or course
  • as a class handout
  • as a posting to a learning or course management system that is password protected or otherwise restricted to students of the College

A short excerpt may mean:

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

No copies may be made of the following:

• Unpublished works
• Proprietary workbooks, work cards, assignment sheets, tests or examination papers
• Instruction manuals
• Newsletters with restricted circulation to a fee paying clientele
• Business cases which are made available for purchase