This is the fourth and final entry in our series of blog posts recognizing Fair Dealing Week 2018 (February 26–March 2, 2018).

The copyright landscape in Canada has undergone significant changes recently. To ensure a fair and reasonable approach to the use of copyright protected materials on campus, Dalhousie has sought to balance the rights of users with those of creators. To help accomplish this, the university has established a Copyright Office and has most recently adopted updated Fair Dealing Guidelines.

As students of Dalhousie University, you may copy materials for which the university (e.g. the Library) has negotiated licenses, according to the terms of the individual license agreements. In addition to license agreements, fair dealing allows you to make use of a work for yourself for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, news reporting, education, parody or satire.

For example, this means you can copy one article from a journal, or one chapter from a book for the purpose of your studies and research. Without fair dealing, any time you wished to make use of a copyrighted work in your course, you would need permission from the copyright holder, perhaps even paying a licensing fee. This short presentation illustrates how many basic use of works that we might take for granted would not be legal without fair dealing:

For more information on how fair dealing affects Students, you can read Fair Dealing for Students, and consult our Fair Dealing Guidelines. Contact the Copyright Office with any questions or comments at copyright.office@dal.ca