Canadian Federation of Library Associations Statement on Copyright Myths

The Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) has published a statement that takes issue with misinformation that targets the library community with regards to the fair dealing exceptions in Canadian copyright legislation.

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.

As the CFLA writes:

"Libraries purchase access to content including books, periodicals, and data and pay publishers hundreds of millions of dollars each year to provide students with digital access to these works. Libraries and librarians support education in colleges and universities across Canada and they support authors through their purchases."

"That important message is being drowned out by the barrage of accusations from author groups and publisher organizations that libraries are threatening the economic viability of authors. Nothing could be further from the truth."

"Those hundreds of millions of dollars in access and subscription fees, paid by libraries, should be going to authors of the licensed works. Copyright is not part of that transaction and tweaking the Copyright Act won’t change the economic plight of Canadian authors."

"The Copyright Act primarily protects the rights of authors and other rights holders. Some of these  rightsholders are complaining about a  sliver of balance which offers limited rights to the users of the works. Long included in legislation, and affirmed by our highest court, that sliver reflects the public interest in copyright – so that people, individuals, students, can make use of a work for a very limited number of purposes, including research, criticism, review, parody, education, and news reporting."

"For more than a decade, the education sector and their libraries have been the target of unfounded claims of harming authors’ incomes — despite being among the largest purchasers of Canadian literary works. These attacks center around changes to the Copyright Act in 2012, which added the term 'education' to the list of allowable purposes for fair dealing. The attackers also oppose the right of post-secondary institutions to manage their copyright obligations without a contractual intermediary that forces students to pay for the right to photocopy course materials they never use and to pay twice for course materials they do."