Canadian Supreme Court Rules On Fair Use

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

24 March 2004

In a ruling issued earlier this month, the Canadian Supreme court set a minimum standard for fair use of copyrighted material, coming down strongly in favour of users' rights.

By a margin of 9-0, the Supreme Court decided that for the purposes of research, the copying of a certain amount of printed material does not represent copyright infringement.

Publishing firms CCH Canada, Thomson Professional Publishing, and Canada Law Book had alleged that copying undertaken by the Canadian Law Society's Great Library on behalf of lawyers researching cases represented copyright infringement.

Ruling that copies can lawfully be made of an entire journal article, a chapter of a book, or up to 5% of a copyrighted text for research purposes, the Supreme Court panel announced that:

"Under Section 29 of the Copyright Act, fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study does not infringe copyright. Research must be given a large and liberal interpretation in order to ensure that users' rights are not unduly constrained, and it is not limited to non-commercial or private contexts."

The Court also disagreed with the publishers' assertion that the presence of a photocopier in the Great Library represented approval of copyright infringement on the part of the Law Society, explaining that:

"While authorization can be inferred from acts that are less than direct and positive, a person does not authorize infringement by authorizing the mere use of equipment that could be used to infringe copyright. Courts should presume that a person who authorizes an activity does so only so far as it is in accordance with the law."

According to reports, the Supreme Court's decision has been welcomed by the country's legal sector, in particular by lawyers in small communities without easy access to court decisions.

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