Fixing Fair Dealing for the Digital Age

This is a follow-up to yesterday's post entitled House of Commons Report on Statutory Review of the Copyright Act.

University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist today chimed in with a post on hos blog: Fixing Fair Dealing for the Digital Age: What Lies Behind the Copyright Review’s Most Important Recommendation.

Fair dealing is an exception allowed under the Copyright Act. It allows use of limited portions of a copyright protected work without permission or payment of copyright royalties for purposes such as  research, private study, education, satire, parody, criticism, review or news reporting.

Prof. Geist writes:

"The long-awaited Canadian copyright review report features numerous good recommendations, many of which were rejections of industry lobbying: a rejection of new restrictions on fair dealing for education, rejection of Bell’s FairPlay site blocking initiative, and rejection of limits on safe harbours in response to the so-called 'value gap.' Yet the most notable recommendation is the committee’s support for fair dealing for the digital age by expanding its scope and ensuring that it applies equally in the analog and digital worlds."