The Supreme Court of Canada released five landmark copyright
decisions on July 12, 2012. These five decisions address the
application of the "fair dealing" test, as well as the
legal interpretation to be given to several terms in the
Copyright Act. The Court's decisions represent its
first review of any
copyright issues since its Robertson v. Thomson Corp.
decision was issued in 2006.
The recent five Supreme Court decisions can be summarized as
follows.
Online music previews and students' copies of short
excerpts don't infringe copyright: SOCAN v. Bell
Canada and Alberta (Education) v. Access
Copyright
SOCAN v. Bell Canada
In
SOCAN v. Bell Canada, the Supreme Court upheld the
decisions of the Copyright Board and the Federal Court of Appeal
that the short song "previews" that online music services
such as iTunes offer to consumers do not infringe copyright. This
is because they are "fair dealing" for the purpose of
"research" under the Copyright Act.
