ARTICLE · 10 JULY 2012

"Fair Dealing" Online? No Quick Test, No One-Size Fits All

Dentons Canada LLP

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Mark and Constance Fournier operate the Free Dominion website as a political news discussion forum.

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Margot Patterson

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Mark and Constance Fournier operate the Free Dominion website as a political news discussion forum. Richard Warman had an exclusive licence to the copyright in a National Post article entitled "Jonathan Kay on Richard Warman and Canada's Phony Racism Industry". Warman alleged that the Fourniers infringed his copyright when excerpts of the article were posted on their website.

In its recent decision, the Federal Court of Canada determined that the reproduction of the excerpts on the site did not infringe Warman's copyright. First, the Court found that the excerpts did not amount to a "substantial part" of the work. In the alternative, the reproduction constituted fair dealing for the purposes of news reporting.

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