Copyright: Fair Dealing

Fair dealing is an exception under the Copyright Act that allows individuals to copy short excerpts of a work without asking for the copyright owner’s permission. Fair dealing is allowed under specific purposes: 

1. Education 
2. Research 
3. Private study 
4. Criticism 
5. Review 
6. Parody 
7. Satire 
8. News reporting 

The Supreme Court of Canada has identified six factors to consider: 

• The purpose of the dealing: Must be one of the eight purposes listed. 
• The character of the dealing: How many copies and for whom (individual, small group, etc.)?
• The amount of the dealing: How much of the work? 
• The nature of the work: Is the book published or unpublished? 
• Alternatives to the dealing: Is there an equivalent, non-protected work? 
• The effect of the dealing on the work: Is the reproduced work likely to compete with sales of the original work?

As the act does not specify what would be considered a fair dealing, each use should be evaluated individually. If it is determined that a use is fair, you must provide a citation or attribution (required by law for criticism, review or news reporting and by SAIT’s academic policy for other uses) SAIT’s Fair Dealing Guidelines can be found here.