"Authorization" and "Secondary Infringement" are two instances of "indirect infringement" in Canadian Copyright law. In cases of indirect infringement, individuals can be held liable for infringement even where they did not personally make copies of the copyrighted subject-matter. This expands the scope of liability. The Canadian courts have dealt with these concepts in a number of cases, several of which will be elaborated upon below.
Authorization
A copyright owner has the right to authorize any of the acts found in S. 3(1) of the Copyright Act [see below]. Anyone who grants, or purports to grant, the right to reproduce or perform a work has authorized it. He is liable for copyright infringement.
Related Provisions in the Canadian Copyright Act
S. 27(1): Infringement Generally: It is an infringement of copyright for any person to do, without the consent of the owner of the copyright, anything that by this Act only the owner of the copyright has the right to do.
S. 3. (1): For the purposes of this Act, "copyright", in relation to a work, means the sole right to produce or reproduce the work or any substantial part thereof in any material form whatever, to perform the work or any substantial part thereof in public or, if the work is unpublished, to publish the work or any substantial part thereof, and includes the sole right
(a) to produce, reproduce, perform or publish any translation of the work,
(b) in the case of a dramatic work, to convert it into a novel or other non-dramatic work,
(c) in the case of a novel or other non-dramatic work, or of an artistic work, to convert it into a dramatic work, by way of performance in public or otherwise,
(d) in the case of a literary, dramatic or musical work, to make any sound recording, cinematograph film or other contrivance by means of which the work may be mechanically reproduced or performed,
(e) in the case of any literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, to reproduce, adapt and publicly present the work as a cinematographic work,
(f) in the case of any literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, to communicate the work to the public by telecommunication,
(g) to present at a public exhibition, for a purpose other than sale or hire, an artistic work created after June 7, 1988, other than a map, chart or plan,
(h) in the case of a computer program that can be reproduced in the ordinary course of its use, other than by a reproduction during its execution in conjunction with a machine, device or computer, to rent out the computer program, and
(i) in the case of a musical work, to rent out a sound recording in which the work is embodied,
and to authorize any such acts
Supreme Court Definition of "Authorization": CCH v LSUC
The Supreme Court of Canada defines and discusses the definition of "authorization" in a 2004 case, CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada. In this case, the LSUC, which maintains and operates the Great Library at Osgoode Hall, engaged in two relevant behaviours. It made photocopies of CCH’s copyrighted law reports for library members It provided self-service photocopy machines for use by library members
The relevant issue for the court with regard to "authorization" is whether the Law Society authorized copyright infringement by maintaining self-service photocopy machines, allowing members to illegally photocopy copyrighted material. The court found that it did not. In the court’s analysis, it concluded that "authorization" in Canadian Copyright law has the following characteristics: