Gould Estate v. Stoddart Publishing Co. Ltd. 1998 CanLII 5513 (ON C.A.), is a Canadian copyright case on the ownership of copyright and requirements of fixation.
During 1956, Jock Carroll interviewed a young Glenn Gould for an article in Weekend Magazine. Carroll documented much of the encounter, he took pictures of Gould, wrote notes and took an audio recording of the interview. All of this was permitted by Gould. The article was eventually published under the title "I Don't Think I'm at All Eccentric".
In 1995, after Gould's death, Carroll published a book called “Glenn Gould: Some Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man” that contained nine photographs from the 1956 interview, as well the narrative of the books was largely based on the notes and recording and contained many quotations by Gould.
The estate of Glenn Gould brought an action against Carroll for copyright infringement in the material that Carroll had recorded and the pictures he had taken.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario held that the oral statements of Gould could not be protected by copyright because there was not fixation. Gould was not reading from a speech or had prepared anything that was said.
Affirmed by the appellate judge, the trial judge held: