Here is a good summary of Canada's fair dealing law:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing
Note some important points. (1) "Fair dealing" is viewed as a "user's right", not as a mere loophole. "Both owner rights and user rights should therefore be given the fair and balanced reading that befits remedial legislation." Hopefully, this means that Quotes' reasons will be seriously considered. (2) There are six criteria for evaluating whether the use constitutes "fair dealing":
- The Purpose of the Dealing Is it for research, private study, criticism, review or news reporting? It expresses that "these allowable purposes should not be given a restrictive interpretation or this could result in the undue restriction of users' rights."
- The Character of the Dealing How were the works dealt with? Was there a single copy or were multiple copies made? Were these copies distributed widely or to a limited group of people? Was the copy destroyed after its purpose was accomplished? What are the normal practices of the industry?
- The Amount of the Dealing How much of the work was used? What was the importance of the infringed work? Quoting trivial amounts may alone sufficiently establish fair dealing. In some cases even quoting the entire work may be fair dealing.
- Alternatives to the Dealing Was a "non-copyrighted equivalent of the work" available to the user? Could the work have been properly criticized without being copied?
- The Nature of the Work Copying from a work that has never been published could be more fair than from a published work "in that its reproduction with acknowledgement could lead to a wider public dissemination of the work - one of the goals of copyright law. If, however, the work in question was confidential, this may tip the scales towards finding that the dealing was unfair."
- Effect of the Dealing on the Work Is it likely to affect the market of the original work? "Although the effect of the dealing on the market of the copyright owner is an important factor, it is neither the only factor nor the most important factor that a court must consider in deciding if the dealing is fair." A statement that a dealing infringes may not be sufficient, but evidence will often be required.
Although Quotes does not himself provide his own criticism or review of the material, it is the result of research and research provided as a resource for other people to research themselves, and technically it might be "news reporting" in that he reports what the WTBTS had previously taught as matters of faith. Since the teachings themselves have changed over the years, one could say that the site is for "historical research". (3) The "amount of dealing" is also an area the WTBTS targets, but it appears that "even quoting the entire work" may be fair dealing in some circumstances. Would these circumstances include cases when the "work" is itself very short, such as a "Questions From Readers", a column in a Kingdom Ministry, or an item in "Watching the World"? (4) Neither does Quotes have much alternative to the dealing, since it is paramount to present ENOUGH CONTEXT of the work to defend against allegations of misrepresentation and since it is the actual published statements of the WTBTS that are at issue, they must be represented in that form. Mere paraphrasing of the WTBTS statements is not sufficient, as it could easily be dismissed as "apostate distortions", and it can be easily established that Quotes' target audience is conditioned against reading commentary and would read only the work itself. (5) The WTBTS' claim of "confidentiality" is based on the limited distribution of the WT Library CD, but most of these are works that had already been distributed publically. The main aim of Quotes is to increase the availability of statements made in works that are no longer distributed by the copyright holder (in some cases for many decades), and have very limited availability. (6) Pursuant to the last point is that Quotes' does not affect the market price of old or out-of-print books since they are no longer distributed, and as for the WT CD, the collection of quotes represents a tiny fraction of the material on the CD. It seems that the WT claim that Quotes "embarasses" them is aimed at this criterion, such that public "embarassment" would negatively impact their "sales". And of course, most importantly, the works are not "sold" anyway but given away "free".