CAUT | ACPPU
Canadian Association of University Teachers
| Supreme Court copyright decisions uphold fair dealing rights, marking big victory for education and research |
| (Friday, July 13, 2012)
- Teachers, students and all Canadians stand to gain from a series of Supreme Court decisions on copyright matters that reaffirm the right to copy portions of materials without permission or payment for non-commercial research and education purposes. “The Court has affirmed and clarified what rights teachers, researchers, students and members of the public have in accessing and copying materials for education and research,” said James L. Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. “Taken as a whole, it is difficult to imagine a stronger endorsement of fair dealing rights or a more balanced approach to copyright.” CAUT had intervened in two of the five cases – Alberta (Education) v. Access Copyright and SOCAN v. Bell – both of which considered the rights of fair dealing as they relate to research and private study. In the first case considering whether teachers could photocopy without permission or payment short excerpts from books and other materials for students, the majority decision found that, “photocopies made by a teacher and provided to primary and secondary school students are an essential element in the research and private study undertaken by those students.” “In the university and college context, the Court’s decision directly calls into question the model license agreement recently reached between Access Copyright and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada,” noted Turk. “Colleges and universities who have opted out of the agreement have been vindicated, while those who signed on should start thinking today about not renewing their licence.” The Court also considered a case of whether song previews on services such as iTunes qualify as research for fair dealing purposes. The majority argued that research must be defined broadly: “Limiting research to creative purposes would also run counter to the ordinary meaning of ‘research’, which can include many activities that do not demand the establishment of new facts or conclusions. It can be piecemeal, informal, exploratory, or confirmatory. It can in fact be undertaken for no purpose except personal interest.” “This is an important clarification, not just for the education community but for all Canadians, of the wide variety of research that is subject to fair dealing,” Turk stated. |
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