Defense of Fair Dealing in Copyright Law
"Fair dealing" is a clause in the copyright laws of many countries that were formerly controlled by the British. While the U.S. has a "fair use" clause that is open to a small degree of interpretation, fair dealing is explicitly defined. The U.K., Australia and Canada all have fair dealing clauses in their copyright laws.
Other People Are Reading
-
Licensing
-
Copyright holders own an exclusive right to use --- in a broad sense -- copyright material for the term of the copyright (generally the author's lifetime plus 50 years). Anyone else who wishes to legally use the material must obtain a license from the copyright holder. A license is a legal agreement permitting another entity to use the material for a specified amount of time in a specified way, and licenses often cost money.
Fair Dealing
-
Fair dealing clauses essentially list possible defenses for people charged with using material without the copyright holder's permission, also known as copyright infringement. To mount a fair dealing defense, the alleged infringement must have fallen into a category outlined by the national law (unlike fair use in the U.S., which creates the possibility of defenses arguing that new kinds of uses constitute fair use).
-
U.K.
-
According to Section 30 of the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patent Act, fair dealing can be claimed as a defense in the case of reporting news or current events, or when copyright material was used in criticism or review. Section 29 also allows for copyright material to be used without the holder's permission for noncommercial private study, research and educational purposes.
Canada
-
Section 29 of Canada's Copyright Act allows entities to use copyright material for news reporting (provided the user acknowledges the copyright holder in the report), criticism and review, and noncommercial research and study. Some users, such as educational institutions, are specifically exempted under the fair dealing clause as well. Interestingly, parody is a legal grey area and parodies may not be able to mount a successful fair dealing defense using the criticism category.
Australia
-
Australia, on the other hand, specifically allows parody and satire to claim a fair dealing defense (Section 41). Section 41 also enumerates review and criticism, while Section 42 of the Copyright Act allows news reporting. Section 40 allows research and private study to claim fair dealing defenses, and specifies that those engaging in research and private study may legally copy up to one chapter or 10 percent of a book or journal.
-
