Notice and Notice is a tool established in the Copyright Act to help copyright owners address online copyright infringement (e.g. illegal downloading) so that they can protect their copyright material while respecting the interests and freedom of users. It formalized a voluntary industry-based practice that had been in place for several years.
The Notice and Notice regime of the Copyright Modernization Act came into force on on January 2, 2015.
Fair dealing and Open Council
Fair dealing is a user’s right in copyright law permitting use of, or “dealing” with, a copyright protected work without permission or payment of copyright royalties. The fair dealing exception in Canada’s Copyright Act allows you to use other people’s copyright protected material for the purpose of research, private study, education, satire, parody, criticism, review or news reporting, provided that what you do with the work is ‘fair’. If your purpose is criticism, review or news reporting, you must also mention the source and author of the work for it to be fair dealing.
Simon Fraser University
The Supreme Court of Canada has established a 2 part, 6 factor test for determining if a use is fair:
- First, determine if the use is covered by any of the purposes enumerated in the Copyright Act:
- Research
- Private study
- Criticism
- News reporting
- Education
- Parody
- Satire
If yes, then you can proceed to step 2.
- Apply each of the 6 factors:
- Purpose
- Is it commercial or research / educational?
- Character
- What was done with the work?
- Was it an isolated use or an ongoing, repetitive use?
- How widely was it distributed?
- Amount
- How much was copied?
- Alternatives
- Was the work necessary for the end result?
- Could a different work have been used instead?
- Nature
- Is there a public interest in its dissemination?
- Was it previously unpublished?
- Effect
- Does the use compete with the market of the original work?
- Purpose
It is not necessary that every one of these factors is satisfied in order to be fair, and no one factor is determinative by itself. In assessing whether the use is fair, a court would look at the factors as a whole to determine if, on balance, the use is fair.
How to submit a notice
If you believe that content on Open Council infringes upon your copyright, please let us know and we will work with you to address it.
When a copyright owner thinks that an Internet user might be infringing their copyright, they can send a notice of alleged infringement to the user’s ISP. Notice and Notice requires that the ISP forward (e.g. via email) the notice of alleged infringement to the user and then inform the copyright owner once this has been done.