A discussion on the interplay between fair dealing and the Copyright Act’s technological protection measures. Who wins out?

Join James Plotkin (Litigation/Disputes Lawyer, WLG (Canada) LLP) for a discussion on what happens when the Copyright Act’s most powerful user right runs into one of its most powerful, and largely untested, enforcement tools.

In 2012, the Canadian government modernized the Copyright Act. Two important changes were to: 1) enhance fair dealing by adding the education, parody and satire categories; and 2) enact a suite of robust remedial provisions around circumvention of technological protection measures (TPMs) applied to copyright protected works.

But what happens when one wishes to circumvent a technological protection measure to engage in fair dealing? In an upcoming hearing, the Federal Court will consider just that. Spoiler alert: James contends fair dealing trumps TPMs, at least on days ending in “y”.