In an appeal from judicial review of a copyright tariff ruling, the Court examined whether teacher-made classroom photocopies qualified as fair dealing for research or private study under s. 29 of the Copyright Act.
The majority held the tribunal unreasonably applied key fairness factors by separating teacher and student purposes, assessing amount on aggregate copying rather than excerpt-to-work proportion, treating additional textbook purchases as a practical alternative, and inferring market harm without an adequate evidentiary link.
Applying reasonableness review, the Court concluded the unfairness determination could not stand and remitted the matter for reconsideration.
A dissent would have deferred to the tribunal’s multifactor factual assessment and would have upheld the result despite one flawed effect-of-the-dealing finding.
