Title: Sections 29.4-30.03 Educational Institution Exceptions

*Updated: March 2024
Learning Objectives:

- Understand the educational exceptions in ss. 29.4 to 30.03 of the Copyright Act
- Describe the 'publicly available materials on the internet' exception
- Recognize that the use of copyright-protected materials for educational purposes may also fall under a fair dealing exception and that educators need not rely on ss. 29.4 to 30.03 alone

What counts as an 'educational institution'?
Educational institutions are defined in s. 2 of the Act and include licensed non-profit institutions that are recognized by or under an Act of Parliament or the legislature of a province, and that provide pre-school, elementary, secondary or post-secondary education. It can also include other non-profit institutions prescribed by regulation that provide or supervise education or training. It does not include private schools or training institutions unless they are registered as a non-profit.

Reasonably commercially available?
Materials are considered to be "reasonably commercially available" when those materials can be obtained on the Canadian market within a reasonable time, located with reasonable effort, and available for a reasonable price. An example of how this might apply is the case where a publisher is selling high-resolution slides for use in lectures that reproduce images from the textbook. In such a case, it may not be fair for a professor to make their own slides by scanning pages of the textbook in a case where such slides are already available. See the definition of "commercially available" in s. 2 of the Copyright Act.

What about using my Netflix or Spotify account in the classroom?
Always check the terms of your end user agreement or contract before sharing content from a personal account.

What is considered a 'lesson'?
The Copyright Act defines “lesson” as a lesson, test or examination or part of one. We know this doesn’t add much clarity, but just wanted to point out this terrible, circular definition. See s. 30.01(1) of the Act for the "Meaning of lesson."

How would you enforce the destruction provision?
If institutions truly wanted to ensure that they met the 30 days after destruction requirements they would likely have to distribute course materials using digital rights management technology or rely on some other means of electronic surveillance of students and instructors. That would go over well we’re sure.

More info on the differences in the amount of royalties.
If the institution is required to pay a greater amount in royalties under the new conditions than they had previously paid, they must pay that higher fee going forward and pay the difference in back-payments for the copies starting from the day in which the institution first made the first digital reproduction. If they are required to pay less than they had previously been paying for digital copies, the collective must reimburse the difference in fees back to the institution from the day in which the institution made the first digital reproduction.

The following two judgments address this issue:

- York University v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright), 2021 SCC 32. https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/18972/index.do
- Alberta v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright), 2024 FC 292. https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/525044/index.do

According to section 29.4, it is not an infringement of copyright for a teacher to make a copy of a work in order to display it in their classroom as long as:

Q: According to section 29.4, it is not an infringement of copyright for a teacher to make a copy of a work in order to display it in their classroom as long as:
- The work is not reasonably commercially available in the appropriate format
- The copy is only displayed on the school premises
- The copying is done for educational purposes
- All of these are true (correct)

According to s. 31, you can telecommunicate a screen-recording of a lesson in order to watch it later but, 30 days after students have received their final grade:

Q: According to s. 31, you can telecommunicate a screen-recording of a lesson in order to watch it later but, 30 days after students have received their final grade:
- The student must destroy the copy
- The educator must destroy the copy
- The student and the educator must destroy the copy (correct)
- The student must forget what they were taught

What is the name of the provision where, if something is available through common uses of the internet, then it is not infringement for that thing to be reproduced, communicated through telecommunication, or performed for educational or training purposes?

Q: What is the name of the provision where, if something is available through common uses of the internet, then it is not infringement for that thing to be reproduced, communicated through telecommunication, or performed for educational or training purposes?
- Publicly Available Materials provision (PAM) (correct)
- Supposedly Publicly Available Materials provision (SPAM)
- Hardly Available Materials provision (HAM)
- Copyright Act Madness provision (CAM)

A common interpretation of the conditions of the Publicly Available Materials provision is to make these resources available in a restricted environment, like an online portal.

Q: A common interpretation of the conditions of the Publicly Available Materials provision is to make these resources available in a restricted environment, such as an online portal.
A: true

When trying to determine if you can copy or use copyright-protected materials for educational purposes, it is best to start with:

Q: When trying to determine if you can copy or use copyright-protected materials for educational purposes, it is best to start with:
- Section 29 of the Copyright Act, the fair dealing exception (correct)
- Sections 29.4-30.03, the education exceptions
- Section 44.12, court-ordered detention

Many institutions have fair dealing guidelines that are good to reference rather than trying to interpret the education-specific exceptions in the Copyright Act.

Q: Many institutions have adopted fair dealing guidelines that are more relevant and understandable than the education-specific exceptions in the Copyright Act.
A: true

Choose the correct statement.

Credits: Educational Institution Exceptions; by University of Alberta; 2020; licence CC BY 4.0