Big Win for Copyright Collectives

“The introduction of long-awaited copyright reform legislation
has generated considerable discussion among Canadians about whether
the latest bill strikes the right balance. While concern over Bill
C-32’s digital lock rules has garnered the lion share of attention
with expressions of concern from all opposition parties and a wide
range of stakeholders, the other major issue in the bill is the
extension of fair dealing — Canada’s version of fair use — to
cover education, parody, and satire.

“The government endeavoured to find a compromise by rejecting
both pleas for no changes to the fair dealing provision as well as
arguments for a flexible fair dealing that would have opened the
door to courts adding exceptions to the current fair dealing
categories of research, private study, news reporting, criticism,
and review. Instead, it identified some specific new exceptions
that assist creators (parody and satire), educators (education
exception, education Internet exception), and consumers (time
shifting, format shifting, backup copies).”

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