The Federal Court recently released its decision in Canadian Broadcasting Corporation v. Conservative Party of Canada, 2021 FC 425 [CBC] in which it found that the Conservative Party’s use of CBC’s copyrighted materials in their political campaign fell under the fair dealing exception in the Copyright Act. The court deemed the Conservative Party’s use of substantial sections of CBC’s original works to be fair because the usage fell under the category of criticism. In making this decision, the court left the door open for future users of copyrighted materials to argue that their use falls under the fair dealing exception for criticism even when the reproduced work itself is not the target for criticism.
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