The Supreme Court of Canada yesterday granted leave for what could be the most important privacy case in years as it addresses “whether the Personal Information Protection Act [Alberta’s private sector privacy law] is contrary to s.2(b) of the Charter and if so, whether it constitutes a reasonable limit in […]
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The Supreme Court of Canada Speaks: How To Assess Fair Dealing for Education
I’ve posted several pieces on these issues (fair use in Canada, technological neutrality, impact on Access Copyright), but given the ongoing efforts to mislead and downplay the implications of the decisions, this long post pulls together the Supreme Court’s own language on how to assess fair dealing. The quotes come directly from the three major fair dealing decisions: CCH Canadian, Access Copyright, and SOCAN v. Bell Canada.
Note that this post is limited to the Court’s decisions and does not focus on the changes in Bill C-11. The legislative reforms provide additional support for education as they include the expansion of fair dealing to include education as a purposes category, a cap of $5000 on statutory damages for all non-commercial infringement, a non-commercial user generated content provision, an education exception for publicly available on the Internet, a new exception for public performances in schools, and a technology-neutral approach for the reproduction of materials for display purposes that may apply both offline and online.
How the Supreme Court of Canada Doubled Down on Users’ Rights in Copyright
The shift began in 2002 with the Theberge decision, in which Justice Binnie for the majority discussed the copyright balance:
Copyright Board Begins to Life After Supreme Court Rulings
Barry Sookman reports that the Copyright Board of Canada has issued an order to parties in the satellite radio services case to address the implications of the recent Supreme Court of Canada copyright decisions. It notes that “given the reasons of the majority in Alberta (Education) v. Canadian Copyright Licensing […]
Supreme Court Shakes the Foundations of Canadian Copyright Law
While the initial coverage unsurprisingly focused on the specific outcomes for the litigants, including wins for Apple (no fees for song previews on services such as iTunes), the entertainment software industry (no additional payment for music included in downloaded video games), and the education community (copying materials for instructional purposes may qualify as fair dealing), the bigger story are three broad principles that lie at the heart of the court’s decisions.