Fair dealing

Overview

Fair dealing, not to be confused with the broader doctrine of fair use under U.S. law, allows copyrighted material to be used for certain enumerated purposes. There is no global list of limitations and exceptions that constitute fair dealing, but commonly education and research, parody and satire, review and criticism and the reporting of news are amongst the purposes for which fair dealing exceptions exist in national law.

Canada

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United Kingdom

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 does not define fair dealing precisely. Instead, it states:

• fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work for the purposes of research or private study does not infringe any copyright in a work;
• fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review, of that or another work or of a performance of a work accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement does not infringe any copyright in a work;
• fair dealing for the purpose of reporting current events accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement does not infringe any copyright in a work.

Fair dealing is a defence against a copyright infringement action. An individual can claim this defence so long as the copying does not damage the legitimate commercial interests of the rightsholder, and if it was for one of the above purposes. The burden of proof is on the person who copied to show that it was for one of the specified purposes and that it did not damage the rightsholder. If they cannot show this, then they have infringed the rightholder's copyright. The fair dealing concessions apply equally in the digital environment as in the non-digital environment.