Fair Dealing Week: Fair Dealing & Students

March 1, 2018 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

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

Fair Dealing Week: Faculty & Fair Dealing

February 28, 2018 Marlo MacKay 2 Comments

This is part three in a four-part series of blog posts recogning Fair Dealing Week 2018 (February 26–March 2, 2018).

Fair dealing is a powerful tool for using copyrighted works in the classroom. It allows instructors to use photos and videos in class lectures, reduce the cost of materials for students, and facilitate access and accommodation for students. Faculty can also benefit from fair dealing in the context of research, allowing academics to build upon existing research, and facilitating access to scholarly works.

Fair dealing is available in the contexts of education and research, but it is important to remember that copyright in Canada is a balance between users’ rights and the creator’s rights. So, while instructors can engage in copying for their classes, it must be done in a fair and ethical manner.

One of the best resources to make sure your class readings fall under fair dealing is to make use of the Dalhousie Libraries Course Reserves Service. By using course reserves, you can help take the guesswork out of applying fair dealing guidelines for every work that is used as part of class readings, and reduce the cost of material for your students. Course reserves can upload material to Brightspace, or create Stable Links to course readings.

Dr. Mike Smit discuss the importance of fair dealing in this video.

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

Fair Dealing Week: Copyright Office Drop-in Hours

February 22, 2018 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

As part of Fair Dealing Week, the Copyright Office will be holding drop-in office hours. Bring your copyright questions relating to fair dealing, thesis guidelines, film screenings, and more to Roger Gillis, Copyright and Humanities Librarian and Lachlan MacLeod, Copyright Services Coordinator.

For more information please visit the Copyright Office Website, or e-mail copyright.office@dal.ca

Tuesday, February 27, 1–2 p.m.
Room G42,
South Learning Commons, Killam Library

Fair Dealing and Students

February 24, 2017 Marlo MacKay 2 Comments

This is the fourth and final entry in our series celebrating Fair Dealing Week.

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.

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 (click on the image) 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, please take some time to read about fair dealing for students, and consult our fair dealing guidelines. Please feel free to contact the Copyright Office with any questions or comments at copyright.office@dal.ca

Faculty and Fair Dealing

February 23, 2017 Marlo MacKay 2 Comments

This is part three in our series to celebrate Fair Dealing Week. Part four (Students and Fair Dealing) will appear on Friday.

Fair dealing is a powerful tool for using copyrighted works in the classroom. It allows instructors to use photos and videos in class lectures, reduce the cost of materials for students, and facilitate access and accommodation for students. Faculty can also benefit from Fair Dealing in the context of research, allowing academics to build upon existing research, and facilitating access to scholarly works.

Fair dealing is available in the contexts of education and research, but it is important to remember that copyright in Canada is a balance between users’ rights and creators’ rights. While instructors can engage in copying for their classes, it must be done in a fair and ethical manner.

One of the best resources to make sure your class readings fall under fair dealing is to make use of the Dalhousie Libraries course reserves service. By using the course reserves service, you’re taking the guesswork out of applying fair dealing guidelines for every work that is used as part of class readings, and reducing the cost of material for your students. The Dal Libraries’ course reserves service can upload material to Brightspace for you, or create stable links to course readings.

For more information on how fair dealing affects faculty, please take some time to read about fair dealing for faculty, and consult our Fair Dealing Guidelines. Please feel free to contact the Copyright Office with questions or comments at copyright.office@dal.ca

Fair Dealing: Why Is it Important?

February 22, 2017 Marlo MacKay 2 Comments

This is part two in a four-part series of blog posts celebrating Fair Dealing Week (February 20–24, 2017).

Fair Dealing permits the limited use of copyright-protected material without the permission of copyright owners, and without the risk of infringement. It is intended to provide a balance between the rights of creators and the rights of users. Copyright protects the expression of ideas, and fair dealing provides the space for new ideas to flourish. Prior to the current allowances of fair dealing, it was much more difficult to navigate copyright rules to find material for teaching and research. Students, faculty, and staff can now benefit from fair dealing to improve their classes, work, and studies.

Two Dalhousie professors, Dr. Sasha Kondrashov and Dr. Mike Smit discuss the importance of fair dealing in the videos below:

For more information, you can read about fair dealing on the Dalhousie Libraries’ Copyright Office’s Fair Dealing Basics page, and consult the Fair Dealing Guidelines. Please feel free to contact the Copyright Office with any questions or comments at copyright.office@dal.ca

Fair Dealing Week: What Is Fair Dealing?

February 21, 2017 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

This is part one in a four-part series of blog posts celebrating Fair Dealing Week (February 20–24, 2017).

Fair Dealing Week (Fair Use Week in the United States) is the Association of Research Libraries (ARL)’s annual celebration of fair dealing. To mark Fair Dealing Week, we’ll be blogging about it all week. These posts will outline why fair dealing is important, what fair dealing means to instructors, and how fair dealing applies to students.

Fair dealing is a right in the Copyright Act (Section 29) which allows the copying and communicating of copyrighted works without permission from or payment to the copyright holder. The Supreme Court of Canada has established a two-part, six-factor test for determining fair dealing:

Step One: Determine if your use of a copyrighted work is covered by any of the purposes enumerated in the Copyright Act: research, private study, criticism, news reporting, education, parody, or satire.

Step Two: If your use does fall under one of these purposes, then you can proceed to applying each of the six factors the Supreme Court identified. The six factors are: purpose (different from the purpose in the first step), character, amount, alternatives, nature, and effect.

If your use of a copyrighted work passes both of these steps, it can be deemed fair dealing. To clarify the determination of fair dealing, Dalhousie has developed a set of Fair Dealing Guidelines, in cooperation with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. These guidelines apply to all members of the Dalhousie University community — faculty, staff and students.

For more information, consult the Dalhousie Libraries Copyright Office’s Fair Dealing Basics page, and the Fair Dealing Guidelines. Contact the Copyright Office with any questions or comments at copyright.office@dal.ca

Instructors and Fair Dealing

February 24, 2016 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

This is part two in our series to celebrate Fair Dealing Week, part three (on students and fair dealing) will appear on Friday.

Fair dealing is a powerful tool for using copyrighted works in the classroom. Historically, it has been an underused concept in the educational sector, but this changed drastically in 2012 when two things happened. First, the Supreme Court of Canada issued five decisions on intellectual property — one of which dealt directly with classroom copying, and came down strongly in favour of classroom copying. Second, the Government of Canada amended the Copyright Act to include education as one of the protected categories of fair dealing.

Now, this means that fair dealing is available in the educational context, but it is important to remember that copyright in Canada is a balance: between user’s rights on one hand, and the creator’s rights on the other. So while instructors can engage in copying for their classes, it must be done in a fair and ethical manner. The framework to make this decision was explained by the Supreme Court of Canada, when they identified six factors that decide whether an instance of copying is fair. They are:

The Purpose of the Copying: This is a more expanded discussion of why you are using the work (is it for educational purposes? Research? etc.)
The Character of the Dealing: Are you planning to make multiple copies, or only one? Will they be destroyed after use?
The Amount of the Dealing: How much of the work is being copied? Are you only copying what is absolutely necessary from the work?
Alternatives to the Dealing: Could you have used a non-copyrighted alternative instead?
The Nature of the Work: Was the Work copied intended to be confidential?
The Effect of the Dealing on the Work: Is the copying likely to affect the commercial value of the work?

These factors are weighed together by the courts to decide, on the whole, whether the dealing is more or less fair.

Of course, in the interests of helping you apply these criteria, Dalhousie has adopted a list of fair dealing guidelines. These guidelines take into account the above six factors, and provide guidance on what can and cannot be copied in an educational setting. You can learn more about them here.

If you have any additional questions about Dalhousie’s fair dealing guidelines, or fair dealing in general, please contact us at Copyright.Office@Dal.ca

Fair Dealing: What is it?

February 22, 2016 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

This is the first in a three-part series of blog posts celebrating Fair Dealing Week (February 22–26)

Fair Dealing Week (Fair Use Week in the United States) is the Association of Research Libraries (ARL)’s annual celebration of fair dealing.

Fair Dealing is a right in the Copyright Act (Section 29) which allows the copying and communicating of copyrighted works without permission from or payment to the copyright holder in certain contexts; namely for research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, and parody.

In a landmark 2004 case, the Supreme Court of Canada reinforced the importance of this right in Canada, stating:

“The fair dealing exception is perhaps more properly understood as an integral part of the Copyright Act […] The fair dealing exception, like other exceptions in the Copyright Act, is a user’s right. In order to maintain the proper balance between the rights of a copyright owner and user’s interests, it must not be interpreted restrictively.”

Why, though, should members of the Dalhousie community care about fair dealing and Fair Dealing Week? It’s easy to see how this concept can be useful for a university community. Professors can rely on the education category to reproduce articles for students and students can make copies of material for their own research or private study.

This week we celebrate Fair Dealing Week by providing two additional blog posts (one on Wednesday and one on Friday), outlining what fair dealing means to instructors and to students.

In the meantime, please take some time to learn about Fair Dealing on the Dalhousie Libraries’ Copyright Office’s Fair Dealing Basics page and consult our Fair Dealing Guidelines. And, of course, please feel free to contact the Copyright Office with any questions at Copyright.Office@Dal.ca

Archives for Fair Dealing Week