Fair Dealing Week in Canada

Date(s): Monday, February 22 - Friday, February 26
Time: All Day

Fair Dealing Week in Canada

February 22-26, 2016 has been designated Fair Dealing Week in Canada. In the United States this week is referred to as Fair Use Week. Fair dealing is an important legal doctrine that allows the public to make limited use of copyrighted works and content without being liable for copyright infringement. Fair dealing allowances are designed to balance the rights of creators with the rights of users as a way of enriching the greater public good.

The fair dealing provisions are found in Section 29 of the Copyright Act, and, in short, state that copying copyrighted content for the purpose of research, private study, education, parody, satire, criticism, review, and news reporting does not infringe copyright. Conditions apply, of course.

When the Copyright Act was amended in June 2012 one of the significant changes was the addition of “education” to the allowable purposes of Fair Dealing as described in Section 29. While research and private study can always be interpreted as applying in an educational context, this added purpose now provides teachers, students, and education institutions with explicit statuary clarification for making fair dealing interpretations in learning environments.

Across the United States and Canada this week, education institutes and associations are raising awareness of the user rights granted in American and Canadian copyright law through a variety of activities: organised panel discussions and debates, shared stories, webcasts, webinars, blog posts, tweets, and other events.

As part of its stewardship of the newly launched website www.fairdealingcanada.com, the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office at the University of Toronto Libraries has openly invited faculty and students from any and all Canadian post-secondary institutions to submit personal accounts that describe the positive impacts that fair dealing has on their research, teaching, and learning activities. These collected contributions will serve as a public record that affirms the pedagogical value of Fair Dealing in the Canadian education sector and raise awareness of the importance of exercising one’s right to fair dealing as granted under the Copyright Act.

If anyone from UFV is willing contribute a statement to this project, please contact the copyright librarian: copyright@ufv.ca.

For more information about Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week and the copyright compliance practices at UFV, please see the following information guides:

Fair Dealing Week

UFV Copyright Guide