*Copyright @ UFV  

This guide was prepared by the librarians at UFV. This is an advisory guide and should not be taken as legal advice.

Please contact your liaison librarian for more information or further clarification .

The creator of an original work owns the "Copyright" - the right to make copies and determine who else can make copies - for that work. This applies to all types of original work:

• Literary
• Artistic
• Musical
• Dramatic
• Communication signals (television and radio signals)

Copyright is automatic. It does not have to be applied for. The copyright symbol © does not need to be displayed.

As a general guideline, copyright exists until the author or creator has been dead for 50 years.

Remember, just because you can copy doesn't mean that it is legal to do so.

The copyright landscape in Canada changed substantially in 2012, with the passing of the Copyright Modernization Act and a Supreme Court of Canada decision that is "fair" for an instructor to copy "short excerpts" from a copyright-protected work for students in a class.

The Copyright Modernization Act introduced many changes to the Copyright Act to:

• update Copyright rules with regard to the Internet and electronic versions of material; and
• improve and clarify educational access to copyrighted material.

In response to these changes, the ACCC has released a Fair Dealing Policy to guide non-profit schools and post-secondary educational institutions in regards to copyright.  UFV is commited to abiding by these guidelines.

The fair dealing provision in the Copyright Act (Sections 29, 29.1 and 29.2), permits use of a copyright-protected work without permission from the copyright owner or the payment of copyright royalties. To qualify for fair dealing, two tests must be passed.

1. First, the "dealing" must be for a purpose stated in the Copyright Act: research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, and parody. Educational use of a copyright-protected work passes the first test.
2. The second test is that the dealing must be "fair." In landmark decisions in 2004 and in 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada provided guidance as to what this test means in schools and post-secondary educational institutions.

This Fair Dealing Policy applies fair dealing in non-profit K-12 schools and post-secondary educational institutions and provides reasonable safeguards for the owners of copyright-protected works in accordance with the Copyright Act and the Supreme Court decisions.

In the CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada [2004] decision, the Supreme Court of Canada defined the following criteria for evaluating fair dealing of a work:

• The Purpose of the Dealing
• The Character of the Dealing
• The Amount of the Dealing
• The Nature of the Work
• Available Alternatives to the Dealing
• The Effect of the Dealing

This legal decision helps clarify the definition of fair dealing and illuminates the use, amount to be used and alternatives available