Today, the Supreme Court of Canada released five decisions on copyright considering issues of communications to the public, soundtracks, and music previewing, all arising from the Copyright Board.

In ESA v. SOCAN, 2012 SCC 34, a majority held that a musical work contained in a video game downloaded over the Internet was not a ‘communication’ and in Rogers v. SOCAN, 2012 SCC 35 that streaming works to requesting members of the public was a ‘communication to the public’ after considering issues of technological neutrality. In Re:Sound v. Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada, 2012 SCC 38, the court held that “sound recording” excludes soundtracks of cinematographic works.

The court considered fair dealing in SOCAN v. Bell Canada, 2012 SCC 36 and Alberta (Education) v. Access Copyright, 2012 SCC 37. In Bell, the court found that music previewing was fair dealing and in Access Copyright, a majority found photocopies by teachers to be fair dealing.