From "Radical Extremism" to "Balanced Copyright" : Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda
Chapter Seven
Locking Out Lawful Users: Fair Dealing and Anti-Circumvention in Bill C-32
Carys Craig
Fair dealing and other exceptions to copyright owners’ rights perform a vital role in the copyright system: they permit substantial uses of copy- right-protected works, which would otherwise be infringing, in order to ensure that copyright does not defeat its own ends. By creating the ne- cessary “breathing space”1 in the copyright system, the fair dealing de- fence acknowledges the collaborative and interactive nature of cultural practices, recognizing that copyright-protected works can be used, copied, transformed, and shared in ways that actually further—as opposed to undermine — the purposes of the copyright system.2 If copyright is to be justified as a means to encourage the creation and exchange of intellectual works to the benefit of authors and society as a whole, then a suitable fair dealing defence is an essential part of that justification.

