This module simplifies a very complex subject. This module is offered for information only, and is not a substitute for legal advice.

Transcript

It’s important to start thinking about copyright when you are selecting course material for your students.

Do you need to scan portions of a book or journal to upload to your learning management system? Do you need to photocopy for handouts or for coursepacks?

Image of person playing music recording for audience.

Photocopying and scanning are copying and may require permission from the copyright owner. But did you know that playing music in the classroom, sharing a born-digital file, or uploading a file from the Internet into your learning management system may also require permission?

It’s not always obvious how copyright is involved, so let’s look at some common educational activities that are regulated by the Copyright Act:

scanning a chapter to upload to your learning management system,
photocopying an article for class handouts or coursepacks,
downloading a document or video from the web to upload to your online course, or printing it for your class,
teaching through the use of live TV or radio shows, or from recordings you have made of these shows,
showing a film in class or online,
playing music in class or online,
performing a play or piece of music in the classroom or for an audience,
displaying charts, graphs, or images scanned from a book or copied from the Internet in your lecture slides,
recording a lecture that includes copyright-protected material, such as slides from a publisher, for students to view at a later time,
translating a work into another language, and
adapting a work, such as changing a novel into a screenplay, or adding or deleting a few sentences or paragraphs from an article.

Image of document downloaded from the web, student using version uploaded to online course, print version for class.

So do you require permission from the copyright owner to use all of these things for educational purposes?

Not necessarily. You may be able to rely on user rights, also known as exceptions in the Copyright Act, in order to use copyright-protected works without permission from the copyright owner. User rights will be covered in another module.

Image of material being used at no additional cost due to an open license such as Creative Commons.

You may be able to use content available under a licence pre-arranged by your institution, or an open licence such as Creative Commons. Such licences allow you to provide a copy of the work at no additional cost. You can learn more about licences in another module.

You may be able to link to an online resource. Linking is not actually copying. Make sure the material was uploaded by the copyright owner or with the copyright owner’s permission. You don’t want to be linking to infringing material.

Image of online course linking directly to online resource.

Talk to your librarian about the latest techniques and best practices to link directly to library-licensed content which may include articles, videos, and books.

If you’re not sure if something you are doing constitutes copyright infringement, or you want to know how you can use copyright-protected material, ask the person or office designated by your institution to answer copyright questions. Your institution’s library is a good place to start.

Quiz

Test your knowledge and take the quiz!

If you have any questions, the USask Copyright Office can be reached by phone at 306-966-8817 or via email at copyright.help@usask.ca.

Note: The information obtained from or through this site does not constitute legal advice, but is provided as guidelines for using works for educational purposes.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Material may be shared and adapted for noncommercial purposes with the following considerations:

All artwork © Giulia Forsythe, made available under a CC0 1.0 License.

Material for the Openly Licensed Materials video has been adapted from: Year of Open Licenses, https://www.yearofopen.org/what-are-open-licenses/ (CC-BY); Guelph Creative Commons Video: https://learningcommons.lib.uoguelph.ca/item/what-are-creative-commons-licenses (CC-BY-NC-SA)

Scripted material and quizzes have been adapted from Copyright Literacy for Ontario College Employees, ©2014 Ontario Colleges, which is licensed under a CC-BY-SA 4.0 International License. Adapted material is shared here under a different license with permission. Scripts and quizzes have been modified to address an audience of instructors and staff at Canadian universities.