What is Fair Dealing?

This video will explain how you, as a student or researcher, can use copyrighted materials in your own work,

How fair dealing may allow you to do this,

And what you need to consider when evaluating whether fair dealing may apply.

Copyright applies to all types of works, including content found on the internet.  This is true even if the copyright symbol isn’t visible.

Fair dealing is a part of the Copyright Act,

And allows for the reproduction of copyrighted works for certain purposes without getting permission or paying a fee.

Some of the purposes for which fair dealing is allowed include research, education, criticism, review and news reporting.  

If you copy something for one of these purposes,

You must further determine if your use of the material in question is fair.

The Supreme Court provides guidance on what is considered ‘more’ or ‘less’ fair when using the work.

Some uses that may be considered ‘more’ fair are:

Using small excerpts of a work, such as quotations, illustrations, figures or excerpts that together do not make up a large portion of the work.

If there is no alternative to using the work in question,

Or if the original work was intended for wide distribution, such as research findings.

Some uses that may be considered ‘less’ fair are:

Using large excerpts, such as multiple chapters of a book, an entire musical work, or video.

If the work is for commercial or for-profit purposes,

If the work will be widely distributed, such as posted on a public website

And if non-copyrighted or freely-licensed alternatives exist that you could use instead.

Remember: some copyrighted works are covered by a license.  Always check the license terms before using licensed materials to be sure your use is permitted,

Licensed content could be images, graphs or text found on a website or a journal article from an online database such as JSTOR

Always credit the creator of the works that you’re using,

And never use or create pirated material, even for fair dealing purposes.

Every source is unique and needs to be evaluated on an individual basis.

Make sure you’re evaluating whether your use is fair and following the license terms, if there are any.

While these are some important considerations for when including copyrighted works in your class assignments,

You may need to consider other criteria if you plan to publish your work online or in a journal.

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