Canadian Academics Sue Over Country’s Copyright Laws On Fair Use

The core issue involves what the Canadian and international publishing industries see as a deeply damaging expansion of “fair dealing” copyright compensation (called “fair use” in other countries). As we’ve reported earlier, vague and imprecise language in the Copyright Modernization Act has resulted in universities setting their own fair-dealing guidelines, in many cases copying and distributing material to students without paying the publisher or copyright holder. This has created patterns of usage which other educational institutions, including K–12 schools, have then adopted. Canadian publishers have estimated they’re losing more than $50 million annually in copyright revenue.