Application Commented On: Supreme Court of Canada Leave to Appeal decision in Alberta (Education) v. Access Copyright
On May 5, 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada granted leave to appeal Alberta (Education) v. Access Copyright, 2010 FCA 198, in which the Federal Court of Appeal decided that it is not fair dealing under the Copyright Act for a teacher to copy copyrighted materials for distribution to his or her class. This decision has been criticized as being inconsistent with the approach to fair dealing followed in SOCAN v. Bell Canada, 2010 FCA 123, which found that streaming music previews to consumers is fair dealing, and in CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada, 2004 SCC 13, [2004] 1 S.C.R. 339, in which the Supreme Court of Canada found that copying legal research materials for lawyers is fair dealing.
This is an important case which could clarify the law of fair dealing in education. I will be blogging on this case in due course.
