Fair Dealing Guidelines for Faculty & Staff

The Copyright Act provides certain exceptions to copyright infringement, which are regarded as users’ rights. Such users’ rights are essential to furthering the public interest objectives of the Copyright Act, including encouraging the wider public dissemination of works. One of the most important exceptions is known as “fair dealing”. The Copyright Act provides that fair dealing for the purpose of research, private study, education, parody or satire, criticism or review, or news reporting, does not infringe copyright (the “Fair Dealing Right”).

Fair dealing is a user’s right in copyright law permitting the use of a copyrighted work without permission or payment of royalties. The fair dealing exception in the Copyright Act applies to specific purposes that are outlined in the act. These include research, private study, education, satire, parody, criticism, review or news reporting, provided that what you do with the work is ‘fair’. Fair dealing for "educational purposes" does not equate to permission to reproduce whatever content you wish. It’s paramount that all faculty and staff at the university abide by the provisions of the Copyright Act and the University of Windsor Fair Dealing Policy, a summary of which is below. 

WHO:	Teachers, instructors, professors and staff members, for each student enrolled in a class or a course
ALLOWED PURPOSES:	Private study News Reporting Research Education Criticism Parody Review Satire
WHAT:	The copy must be a short excerpt containing no more of a work than is required in order to achieve the allowable purpose: Up to 10% of a work (including a literary work, musical score, sound recording, audiovisual work)  OR One chapter from a book  A single article from a periodical An entire artistic work from a source containing other artistic works (including a painting, print, photograph, diagram, drawing, map, chart, plan) An entire newspaper article or page A musical score from a source containing other musical scores; An entry from an encyclopedia, annotated bibliography or dictionary Whichever is greater.
WHERE / WHEN:	In the classroom on campus, as a class handout; In the Learning Management System (e.g. Brightspace), as a scanned posting; In Library Course Reserves in paper or electronic form; In print course packs and it is recommended (if practical) that each such copy, or the LMS, includes a notice indicating that Short Excerpts are being copied in reliance on the Fair Dealing Right, and advising students to only use materials for their personal Allowable Purposes, and not to communicate or share materials with others.
PROVIDED THAT	There is no more copying than what is required in order to achieve the allowable purpose; There is no attempt to copy multiple excerpts from the same source with the intention of copying substantially the entire work; When copying excerpts for News Reporting, Criticism and Review, the source and author/creator are given attribution; When posting in the LMS, access to the copied excerpt is restricted to students of the university; With regard to course packs, charges may only cover university costs;
NOTE:	Proposals for copying or communicating that exceed the limits in this policy may be referred to the Copyright Officer of the University (copyright@uwindsor.ca) for evaluation of whether the act(s) can be permitted under fair dealing based on all the relevant circumstances.