The Supreme Court of Canada today released its decision in York University v. Access Copyright, 2021 SCC 32. The case addressed two issues: whether Access Copyright’s Copyright Board tariff is mandatory, and whether copying by York pursuant to its Guidelines constitutes fair dealing. Both courts below had ruled the tariff not mandatory and the Guidelines unfair.
In a unanimous decision penned by Justice Abella (in her last case on the bench), the Court found that the tariff was not mandatory and so was unenforceable against York, and in light of the absence of any real legal issue between York and Access Copyright, that it would be inappropriate to decide the fair dealing issue.
However, the Court cautioned that this result should not “should not be construed as endorsing the reasoning of” the courts below, citing “some significant jurisprudential problems with those aspects of their judgments that warrant comment.” The Court went on to “correct” those “errors” [para. 87-88]
Highlights of that analysis include:
