This lecture discusses fair dealing and remix culture under Canadian copyright law. It provides an overview of fair dealing and outlines some key aspects of copyright law, including what can and cannot be copyrighted. It then discusses the concept of remixing and provides examples of how remixing builds on previous works to create something new. The lecture concludes with an activity where students create an original collage remixing various copyrighted and public domain images and text to comment on a pop culture figure.

1. Lecture 22
Canadian Fair Dealing & Remix
Culture
Dr. Jessica Laccetti
Image Dawn Endico on flickr.

2. Outline
• Fair Dealing
• Copyright Law in Canada
• Remixing
• Activity
• Next Class

3. Fair Dealing
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing#Canada

5. Can Everything be Copyrighted?
• Nope!
• A work must fit into one of the four major
categories of works in the Copyright Act,
namely literary, dramatic, musical or artistic
works.
• The work must be fixed in some tangible form,
meaning that the work has been reduced to
material form (and is no longer simply an idea
in prospective authors head).
• The work must be "original".

6. What is “Original”?
For a work to be "original" within the meaning of the
Copyright Act, it must be more than a mere copy of
another work. At the same time, it need not be
creative, in the sense of being novel or unique. What
is required to attract copyright protection in the
expression of an idea is an exercise of skill and
judgment... This exercise of skill and judgment will
necessarily involve intellectual effort. The exercise of
skill and judgment required to produce the work
must not be so trivial that it could be characterized
as a purely mechanical exercise.
Chief Justice McLachlin

7. Can an “Idea” be Copyrighted?
• Nope!
• Idea/Expression dichotomy
• Only the “expression” of the “idea” can be
copyrighted
• EG.: “the general plot of a book in the writer's
head could not be copyrighted, but the
manuscript incorporating the plot could.”

8. US lawsuits for illegally copied media surged in 2010 as legal and media groups developed a new strategy for defending copyrights. Source: ars technica via
2020 Media Futures

9. Public Domain Works
• Works that are NOT protected under the
Copyright Act
• Not “proper” subject matter for opyright
protection OR
• Copyright protection has expired
– Life of the author plus 50 years beyond the end of
the calendar year in which they died
– Film/sound works = different terms

10. But What About Remixing?
Image from Ryan Shaw.

11. Is Remixing “Original”?
Image from Fibre Culture Journal.

13. Remix
• The success in a remix is changing the original
version into something new or different.
Image from Brain Pickings.

14. Cut-Ups as Remix
• Take a newspaper.
• Take some scissors.
• Choose from this paper an article of the length you want to make
your poem.
• Cut out the article.
• Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article
and put them all in a bag.
• Shake gently.
• Next take out each cutting one after the other.
• Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
• The poem will resemble you.
• And there you are — an infinitely original author of charming
sensibility even though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.
“To Make A Dadaist Poem”

15. Image from Drempt

16. “Yes, remix artists build on the works of others. But
do so-called creators of 'original material' not build
on the works of others also? Would you consider
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to be an original
piece of work? Even though the idea was based on
a story by William Painter, which was based on a
poem by Arthur Brooke? No matter how far back
you go in the origin of a piece of work, you will find
that the idea was built on or inspired by the work of
someone else before it. I consider remixed videos
to be original works. The finished piece is more
than the sum of its parts.”
Owen Gallagher

17. Remix
• New Ideas
• New Stories
• New Thinking

18. Your Turn
• With a partner or in a small group:
– Create an ORIGINAL collage that critiques or comments
on a pop culture figure, celebrity, band etc…
– Include:
• At least 3 original images
• At least 3 copyrighted (fair dealings justified) images
• At least 3 public domain images
• At least 2 lines of text from a copyrighted work
– Upload your finished collage to Flickr and choose a CC
license
– Add a comment on the blog with names of ALL group
members AND the link to your flickr photo

19. Next Class
Diane Clarke from the library will be telling us
more details about APA style, academic
referencing and finding resources for our
Science Article Assignment