Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42)

Backup Copies

Marginal note:Backup copies

• 29.24 (1) It is not an infringement of copyright in a work or other subject-matter for a person who owns — or has a licence to use — a copy of the work or subject-matter (in this section referred to as the “source copy”) to reproduce the source copy if

  • (a) the person does so solely for backup purposes in case the source copy is lost, damaged or otherwise rendered unusable;

  • (b) the source copy is not an infringing copy;

  • (c) the person, in order to make the reproduction, did not circumvent, as defined in section 41, a technological protection measure, as defined in that section, or cause one to be circumvented; and

  • (d) the person does not give any of the reproductions away.

• Marginal note:Backup copy becomes source copy

  (2) If the source copy is lost, damaged or otherwise rendered unusable, one of the reproductions made under subsection (1) becomes the source copy.

• Marginal note:Destruction

  (3) The person shall immediately destroy all reproductions made under subsection (1) after the person ceases to own, or to have a licence to use, the source copy.

Acts Undertaken without Motive of Gain

Marginal note:Motive of gain

• 29.3 (1) No action referred to in section 29.4, 29.5, 30.2 or 30.21 may be carried out with motive of gain.

• Marginal note:Cost recovery

  (2) An educational institution, library, archive or museum, or person acting under its authority does not have a motive of gain where it or the person acting under its authority, does anything referred to in section 29.4, 29.5, 30.2 or 30.21 and recovers no more than the costs, including overhead costs, associated with doing that act.

Educational Institutions

Marginal note:Reproduction for instruction

• 29.4 (1) It is not an infringement of copyright for an educational institution or a person acting under its authority for the purposes of education or training on its premises to reproduce a work, or do any other necessary act, in order to display it.

• Marginal note:Reproduction for examinations, etc.

  (2) It is not an infringement of copyright for an educational institution or a person acting under its authority to

  • (a) reproduce, translate or perform in public on the premises of the educational institution, or

  • (b) communicate by telecommunication to the public situated on the premises of the educational institution

  a work or other subject-matter as required for a test or examination.

• Marginal note:If work commercially available

  (3) Except in the case of manual reproduction, the exemption from copyright infringement provided by subsections (1) and (2) does not apply if the work or other subject-matter is commercially available, within the meaning of paragraph (a) of the definition commercially available in section 2, in a medium that is appropriate for the purposes referred to in those subsections.

Marginal note:Performances

29.5 It is not an infringement of copyright for an educational institution or a person acting under its authority to do the following acts if they are done on the premises of an educational institution for educational or training purposes and not for profit, before an audience consisting primarily of students of the educational institution, instructors acting under the authority of the educational institution or any person who is directly responsible for setting a curriculum for the educational institution:

• (a) the live performance in public, primarily by students of the educational institution, of a work;

• (b) the performance in public of a sound recording, or of a work or performer’s performance that is embodied in a sound recording, as long as the sound recording is not an infringing copy or the person responsible for the performance has no reasonable grounds to believe that it is an infringing copy;

• (c) the performance in public of a work or other subject-matter at the time of its communication to the public by telecommunication; and

• (d) the performance in public of a cinematographic work, as long as the work is not an infringing copy or the person responsible for the performance has no reasonable grounds to believe that it is an infringing copy.

Marginal note:News and commentary

• 29.6 (1) It is not an infringement of copyright for an educational institution or a person acting under its authority to

  • (a) make, at the time of its communication to the public by telecommunication, a single copy of a news program or a news commentary program, excluding documentaries, for the purposes of performing the copy for the students of the educational institution for educational or training purposes; and

  • (b) perform the copy in public before an audience consisting primarily of students of the educational institution on its premises for educational or training purposes.

• (2) [Repealed, 2012, c. 20, s. 25]

Marginal note:Reproduction of broadcast

• 29.7 (1) Subject to subsection (2) and section 29.9, it is not an infringement of copyright for an educational institution or a person acting under its authority to

  • (a) make a single copy of a work or other subject-matter at the time that it is communicated to the public by telecommunication; and

  • (b) keep the copy for up to thirty days to decide whether to perform the copy for educational or training purposes.

• Marginal note:Royalties for reproduction

  (2) An educational institution that has not destroyed the copy by the expiration of the thirty days infringes copyright in the work or other subject-matter unless it pays any royalties, and complies with any terms and conditions, fixed under this Act for the making of the copy.

• Marginal note:Royalties for performance

  (3) It is not an infringement of copyright for the educational institution or a person acting under its authority to perform the copy in public for educational or training purposes on the premises of the educational institution before an audience consisting primarily of students of the educational institution if the educational institution pays the royalties and complies with any terms and conditions fixed under this Act for the performance in public.

Marginal note:Unlawful reception

29.8 The exceptions to infringement of copyright provided for under sections 29.5 to 29.7 do not apply where the communication to the public by telecommunication was received by unlawful means.

Marginal note:Records and marking

• 29.9 (1) Where an educational institution or person acting under its authority

  • (a) [Repealed, 2012, c. 20, s. 26]

  • (b) makes a copy of a work or other subject-matter communicated to the public by telecommunication and performs it pursuant to section 29.7,

  the educational institution shall keep a record of the information prescribed by regulation in relation to the making of the copy, the destruction of it or any performance in public of it for which royalties are payable under this Act and shall, in addition, mark the copy in the manner prescribed by regulation.

• Marginal note:Regulations

  (2) The Board may, with the approval of the Governor in Council, make regulations

  • (a) prescribing the information in relation to the making, destruction, performance and marking of copies that must be kept under subsection (1),

  • (b) prescribing the manner and form in which records referred to in that subsection must be kept and copies destroyed or marked, and

  • (c) respecting the sending of information to collective societies referred to in section 71.

Marginal note:Literary collections

30 The publication in a collection, mainly composed of non-copyright matter, intended for the use of educational institutions, and so described in the title and in any advertisements issued by the publisher, of short passages from published literary works in which copyright subsists and not themselves published for the use of educational institutions, does not infringe copyright in those published literary works if

• (a) not more than two passages from works by the same author are published by the same publisher within five years;

• (b) the source from which the passages are taken is acknowledged; and

• (c) the name of the author, if given in the source, is mentioned.