Fair Dealing Flowchart

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It is important to determine whether your copying falls within fair dealing. This page sets out the factors you should consider when making that determination. Whether your copying is fair depends on your particular circumstances. If you are not sure, contact the Copyright Office for assistance.

Step One: Check whether your copying is for a permitted purpose

Are you copying the work for the purpose of research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, or parody?

Yes - Continue to the second step

No – Consult our Before You Copy page. Is the copying permitted under an Act exception or licence?

Step Two: Check whether your copying is fair

The factors below can assist in determining whether a specific reproduction is fair.

Nature of the Dealing	Less Fair	More Fair
Purpose	Commercial	Charitable/Educational
Character of the Dealing	Multiple copies; Widely distributed/repetitive	Single copy; Limited distribution/one-off
Importance/Amount of Work Copied	Entire Work/Significant excerpt	Limited/trivial amount
Effect of Dealing on the Original Work	Competing with original work	No detriment to original
Nature of the Work	Confidential	Unpublished/in public Interest
Available Alternatives	Non-copyright works available; Not necessary for purpose	No alternative works; Necessary to achieve purpose