Fair Dealing Flow Chart
It can often be tricky to determine whether something you want to do falls within fair dealing. This quick guide sets out the steps you should take and the factors you should consider. Ultimately, it will depend on your particular circumstances and you have to make a judgment call as to whether your use can be classified as “fair”.
Step 1: Check whether your Purpose is a Permitted Purpose:
- Research
- Private study
- Criticism
- Review
- News reporting
- Education
- Satire
- Parody
YES – Continue on to Step 2.
NO – Check whether use is covered under:
- Any other Copyright Act exception
- Library licences for electronic journals and databases (Note: some licences may prohibit some uses even if the purpose is one of the above.)
- Cinematograph film licences
- Any other agreement
Step 2: Check whether your Use is “Fair”
| Nature of the Dealing | Less Fair | More Fair |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Commercial | Charitable/Educational |
| Character of the Dealing | Multiple Copies; Widely Distributed/ Repetitive | Single copy; Limited Distribution/ One-off |
| Importance/ Amount of Work Copied | Entire Work/ Significant Excerpt | Limited/ Trivial Amount |
| Effect of Dealing on the Original Work | Competing with Original Work | No Detriment to Original |
| Nature of the Work | Confidential | Unpublished/ In Public Interest |
| Available Alternatives | Non-copyright Works Available; Not Necessary for Purpose | No Alternative Works; Necessary to Achieve Purpose |
Fair Dealing Flowchart licensed from the University of Waterloo Copyright Advisory Committee under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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