United States of America
Canada
Copyright and Related Rights
8. Please explain how the operation of Sections 27(2)(e), 27(2)(f), 27(2)(h), and 27(3) of the Copyright Act complies with Berne Article 9(2) and TRIPS Article 13, which require limitations and exceptions to exclusive rights to be limited to certain special cases which do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the rightholder.
These are de minimis exceptions of a nature common to the copyright laws of many countries. For example, Copyright Act, Section 27(2)(e), deals with newspaper reports of public lectures which in other countries, e.g., the USA would fall within the broad category of "fair use". It is well known that "fair dealing" under the Canadian Copyright Act is given a narrower interpretation than "fair use" under the corresponding USA statute. Also within the USA category of "fair use" would be the situation provided for by Canadian Copyright Act, Section 27(2)(f), which deals with the public recitation of a reasonable extract of a published work. With reference to the Cultural Property Export and Import Act as cited in Copyright Act, Section 27(2)(h), the relevant exception to the reproduction right is unlikely to affect foreign rightholders and is so limited as to easily meet the economic tests imposed by TRIPS, Article 13. With respect to the public performance of a musical work, Copyright Act, Section 27(3), is much narrower in scope than the classroom exception found in the USA Copyright Law and would accordingly have an easier time meeting the TRIPS, Article 13 tests than would the USA classroom exception.