Copyright for Students

Fair Dealing

The “Fair Dealing Exception” in the Copyright Act allows a person to copy, without permission, a short excerpt from a copyrighted work for the purposes of research, private study, education, satire, parody, criticism, review, or news reporting. In addition, the work must be treated fairly. Please see Fair Dealing at Conestoga to learn more about Fair Dealing.

Fair Dealing Analysis

The fair dealing provision in the Copyright Act allows the use of copyright-protected works without permission of the copyright owner if two tests are passed:

1. The dealing must be for a purpose outlined in the Copyright Act: research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, and parody.
2. The work must be treated fairly.  The Copyright Fair Dealing Analysis at Conestoga tool can help you decide if a work is treated fairly.

Please email copyright@conestogac.on.ca if you have a Fair Dealing question.

You may also complete the Fair Dealing Request Form when you have questions about allowable/acceptable copying practices. The Library copyright staff will review your request and let you know if the intended copy complies with Fair Dealing. To make this determination, it may be necessary to see the original resource.

Fair Dealing Request Form

What Can I Do With The Copies?

A single copy of a short excerpt from a copyright-protected work may be provided or communicated to each student enrolled in a class or course via one of the following means:

• as a class handout
• as a posting to a learning management system that is password protected or otherwise restricted to students
• as part of a learning package
• course readings (reserves)