The fair dealing exception in the Copyright Act (sections 29, 29.1, and 29.2) allows for the use of a short excerpt of a copyright protected work without seeking permission or paying royalties to the copyright owner. To qualify for fair dealing, two tests must be passed.  

1. The use must be for one of the following purposes, as stated in the Copyright Act:

• Private study
• Research
• Review
• Criticism
• News reporting
• Education
• Parody
• Satire

2. The use of the work must be fair
 

Please note: Because "fair dealing" is not defined in the Copyright Act, determining whether a use of a work is fair will always depend on the specific facts relevant to the use. 

At MRU, copies made using the fair dealing exception are subject to the Fair Dealing Guidelines, which lays out how much you can copy for the purposes of education, research, and private study.