The Copyright Resource for Teachers:
There is a great on-line resource to help teachers determine whether fair dealing permits them to use short excerpts from copyright-protected materials for the students in their classrooms.
Fairdealingdecisiontool.ca helps teachers decide, with a few clicks, whether the fair-dealing provision in the Copyright Act permits copying of short excerpts from print materials, artistic works, or audiovisual materials for students without having to get copyright permission.
So, the next time you wonder, “Can I use this in the classroom? Can I copy it?” the answer is at your fingertips! It takes 30 seconds on fairdealingdecisiontool.ca to have your copyright questions answered. By clicking through this user-friendly resource, teachers will know how to apply fair dealing and whether their use of the copyright-protected materials is “fair.”
Fairdealingdecisiontool.ca informs teachers about their rights and obligations when they use copyright-protected works of others. It will ensure that they better understand the law and the application of the Fair Dealing Guidelines. There are other important copyright resources all teachers should become familiar with:
- the instructive video “Dealing Fairly with Copyright-Protected Works of Others”;
- the Fair Dealing Guidelines;
- the poster prohibiting the copying of consumables; and
- Copyright Matters! (“the orange book”) provides key questions and answers on copyright law and education.
All of these resources can be printed for teachers’ easy reference.
Fairdealingdecisiontool.ca is a helpful resource to keep teachers on the right side of the law. It is important for teachers to know their rights under Canada’s copyright law, and it is very important for them to know their limits. When in doubt about whether a use is fair dealing, use the Copyright Decision Tool.
Visit (and bookmark!): fairdealingdecisiontool.ca
Additional documentation regarding our advocacy efforts for Fair Dealing:
- Why Fair Dealing is Not Destroying Canada Publishing
- Summary Position
- A CSBA letter to Honourable Joly and Honourable Bains where we specifically defend fair dealing – the right for educators to use copyright protected material at no costs.
- A CSBA letter outlining and addressing the proposed options made by the Copyright Review Board of Canada.
