Dynamic Fair Dealing

"Dynamic Fair Dealing is a terrific book. A unique and valuable contribution to the scholarship around fair dealing and copyright, this collection offers a fascinating account of contemporary creative and cultural practices that challenge status quo assumptions about copyright law." -- Teresa Scassa, Canada Research Chair in Information Law, University of Ottawa "The concept of fair dealing is essential in securing a digital environment that reflects the public interest in creativity, access to information, and freedom of speech. No other work subjects fair dealing to such in-depth, sustained, critical, and practical analysis." -- Fiona Macmillan, Corporation of London Professor of Law, Birkbeck, University of London "Fair dealing is absolutely crucial in order to achieve a just balance of interests in copyright law and to secure the adaptability of the system to a rapidly changing digital environment. However, its scope is not always clear and often needs judicial clarifications. This timely collection presents an interdisciplinary perspective on what is and should be considered fair, by providing not only legal views but also empirical evidence and case studies in the different fields where it applies." -- Christophe Geiger, Director General, Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies, University of Strasbourg

Dynamic Fair Dealing presents a range of insightful and provocative essays that rethink our relationship to Canadian fair dealing policy.

Dynamic Fair Dealing argues that only a dynamic, flexible, and equitable approach to cultural ownership can accommodate the astonishing range of ways that we create, circulate, manage, attribute, and make use of digital cultural objects.

The Canadian legal tradition strives to balance the rights of copyright holders with public needs to engage with copyright protected material, but there is now a substantial gap between what people actually do with cultural forms and how the law understands those practices. Digital technologies continue to shape new forms of cultural production, circulation, and distribution that challenge both the practicality and the desirability of Canada's fair dealing provisions.

Dynamic Fair Dealing presents a range of insightful and provocative essays that rethink our relationship to Canadian fair dealing policy. With contributions from scholars, activists, and artists from across disciplines, professions, and creative practices, this book explores the extent to which copyright has expanded into every facet of society and reveals how our capacities to actually deal fairly with cultural goods has suffered in the process. In order to drive conversations about the cultural worlds Canadians imagine, and the policy reforms we need to realize these visions, we need Dynamic Fair Dealing.