[2] These service providers allow consumers to listen to free 30–90 second previews for those musical works before making a purchase.

[4] SOCAN filed proposed tariffs with the Copyright Board of Canada for the determination of royalties to be paid by users when musical works are communicated to the public over the Internet.

The Court applied the test for fair dealing set out in CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada, [2004] 1 SCR 339.

[9] It reaffirmed that fair dealing must not be interpreted restrictively, because allowing users to engage in some activities that would otherwise constitute copyright infringement supports the achievement of the proper balance, set out in Théberge v. Galerie d'Art du Petit Champlain Inc., 2002 SCC 34, between promoting the public interest in the encouragement and dissemination of works (access) and obtaining a just reward for the creator (protection).

[10] The first stage of the fair dealing analysis requires that the previews be for the purpose of research, private study, criticism, review or news reporting.

[13] The Court concluded that the consumers' use of previews of musical works constitutes research, with respect to authenticity and quality, for the purpose of identifying which songs to purchase and therefore satisfies the first step of the fair dealing inquiry.

Also released on July 12, 2012, Alberta (Education) v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright)[18] cited SOCAN v. Bell Canada with approval for the propositions that: 1) fair dealing enables user to engage in activities that might otherwise amount to copyright infringement,[19] 2) that fair dealing is a user's right and the relevant perspective at the first stage of the test is that of the user,[20] and 3) that the "amount" factor is not a quantitative assessment based on aggregate use, but rather an examination of the proportion between the excerpted copy and the entire work.

[23] Furthermore, its emphasis that fair dealing is a user's right that must interpreted liberally, rather than as a narrow exception "to be grudgingly conceded", has been cited as a basis for why either the American open-ended fair use doctrine or an expanded list of enumerated user rights under s.29 should be adopted in Canada.