February 24-28

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has long advocated for the protection and expansion of #FairCopyright rules that work for educators, students, researchers and the Canadian public.

Fair Dealing / Fair Use Week is an international celebration of an important part of copyright law that helps to balance the interests of users and owners while supporting access to information and knowledge.

This year it remains important that we spread the message about the importance of fair dealing in Canada.

On January 1, 2023, the Canadian government extended copyright protection for an additional 20 years. That means works that would have entered the public domain will remain outside for another 20 years – stalling the ability of Canadians to interact freely with works from authors including Gabrielle Roy, Margaret Laurence, Glenn Gould and others.

This was the result of Canadian concessions to American demands during NAFTA renegotiations – likely fueled by Hollywood lobbyists and big industrial content producers such as commercial textbook publishers.

With more American trade negotiations on the horizon, it’s important that Ottawa knows Canadians still care about copyright and don’t want more concessions made.

Meanwhile, textbook publishers and other industry groups have been lobbying the federal government to roll back copyright laws that support the education sector. Their goal is to increase their corporate profits on the backs of students.

What can you do?

• Send a letter to the cabinet ministers that oversee Canada’s copyright laws
• Read the public service announcement at the beginning of your class, lecture, seminar or tutorial to help spread the word
• Post this poster on campus about your copy(rights)
• Get crafty by building a kaleidocycle about fair dealing and sharing it with friends

On social media

• Make noise and re-share CAUT’s shareables using #fairdealingworks #faircopyright and #fairdealingweek
• Take a picture of yourself with a paper, book, article or other creation that you made. Post the photo online with the tagline “I’m a creator and I support fair dealing” while tagging @CAUT_ACPPU

Read and share

• CAUT’s information materials on #faircopyright issues including fair dealing
• CAUT’s guidelines for the use of copyrighted materials

Other resources

• fair-dealing.ca
  The Canadian post-secondary sector, including CAUT, has joined together to form a coalition to resist corporate interests that want to roll-back fair dealing
• fairuseweek.org
  This website collects events and efforts happening in the USA, Canada and the UK to celebrate Fair Dealing / Fair Use Week