All the Game's a Stage: Machinima and Copyright in Canada

Abstract

The primary purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which Canada's copyright laws permit the creation of machinima, an art form broadly defined as the creation of films within video games. This article is structured as follows. First, it will introduce machinima, discussing its origins, its development and its social importance. Second, it will examine whether the acts of creating and distributing machinima infringe copyright in Canada. Third, it will ask whether there are any defences to copyright infringement on which machinimators (those who create machinima) can rely. This article will demonstrate that, in many cases, the creation and distribution of machinima likely infringes Canadian copyright law. Furthermore, a large percentage of machinima that are found to infringe copyright will not be protected by the fair dealing defence as it is currently being applied by Canadian courts. This article will conclude by situating the narrow issue of machinima and copyright infringement within the broader context of creativity and copyright reform in the digital age.