Copyright: Are there fair dealing guidelines?

"In 2012, the college, university and K-12 sectors issued guidelines to help educators and students apply fair dealing. This shared interpretation of fair dealing (i.e. at most 10 per cent of a work is eligible for fair dealing) has been supported by the Copyright Board of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal. The 10 per cent interpretation is consistent with international standards and interpretations of equivalent laws in other countries (including the United States)" (emphasis added).

Fair Dealing Works. Universities Canada, 2018

Below is an excerpt of fair dealing guidelines. Please consult the full document.

1. Teachers, instructors, professors, and staff members in non-profit educational institutions may communicate and reproduce, in paper or electronic form, short excerpts from a copyright-protected work for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, and parody.

2. A single 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 a school or postsecondary educational institution;
• as part of a course pack.

4. A short excerpt means:

• up to 10 per cent 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.

Fair Dealing Guidelines. Council of Ministers of Education, Canada