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Copyright for Faculty & Staff

Copyright Updates 2021

Quick Reference Guide to Copyright

There are five questions to ask when attempting to use materials. Follow the University of Ottawa's handy flowchart to help you navigate these questions (shared with permission).

Copyright Statements for Instructor-Created Materials at Assiniboine

The following copyright statement should be added to all Assiniboine created course materials:

  • Copyright © [year] Assiniboine Community College. For requests to use this copyright-protected work in any matter, email copyright@assiniboine.net
    • For the year, provide the year of first publication and substantial revision where applicable. E.g. Copyright © 2019 Assiniboine Community College. Last revised 2021. For requests to use this copyright-protected work in any matter, email copyright@assiniboine.net

Place the copyright statement in the best manner and location to reasonably and clearly notify that copyright subsists. The statement should be identifiable, but not distracting. For electronic documents, we recommend adding the copyright statement to the footer on the first page or slide. Avoid using watermarks as they can make a document difficult to read. Additionally, Screen readers cannot read watermarks.

Note: More comprehensive statements may refer to concepts like fair dealing and whether noncommercial or personal uses of work require permission. For additional information, visit Assiniboine's Copyright Support Library Guide.

Copyright Statements for Using Copyright-Protected Materials at Assiniboine 

The following copyright statement should be added to all copyright-protected materials used at Assiniboine which you have received permission to use (view the Copyrighted Materials section under Course Materials, below), and/or are allowed under Fair Dealing or other educational exemptions:

This copy has been supplied to you for personal research and study use in compliance with the Canadian Copyright Act, and/or with permission from the copyright owner. No further reproduction, distribution, or transmission is allowed, except as otherwise permitted by law.

Place the copyright statement in the best manner and location to reasonably and clearly notify that copyright subsists. The statement should be identifiable, but not distracting. For electronic documents, we recommend adding the copyright statement to the footer on the first page or slide. Avoid using watermarks as they can make a document difficult to read. Additionally, screen readers cannot read watermarks.

Copyright & Online Learning

Educational institutions can transmit lessons to students in real time over the Internet or make a recording of a lesson available on-line. Students and schools who have made copies of lessons containing copyright-protected material are required to destroy them within 30 days after the students who are enrolled in the course receive their final evaluations.

Library Resources

Assiniboine pays for the use of many databases available through the Library. View the library's A to Z list of databases for what's available.

Articles from many paid research databases are able to be integrated into Moodle using permalinks.

Course Materials

Assiniboine faculty and staff are able to show legally obtained copies of films or videos in a physical classroom. They must be shown on Assiniboine premises for education or training purposes to an audience composed mainly of Assiniboine students.

 

Section 30.01 of 2012’s ‘Copyright Modernization Act’ allows for the use of copyright protected works in the online environment that matches how copyright protected works can be used in the physical classroom. It requires that instructors:

  • destroy any fixation of the lesson within 30 days after the day on which the students who are enrolled in the course to which the lesson relates have received their final course evaluations
  • take measures that can reasonably be expected to limit the communication by telecommunication of the lesson to students
  • take, in relation to the communication by telecommunication of the lesson in digital form, measures that can reasonably be expected to prevent the students from fixing, reproducing or communicating the lesson other than as they may do under this section

For Assiniboine instructors wanting to use videos on Zoom, this means:

  • You can show our Library-owned DVDs to students over Zoom as long as the meeting is password protected and the students know they can’t record the meeting on their own; use copyright statement provided in online guide
  • You can record the class in which you show the DVD and embed in Moodle since it is password-protected and for registered students only
  • You must destroy the recording within 30 days of the students receiving their final grades
Faculty and staff are able to use information from websites for educational purposes unless the site specifically declares otherwise. Such declarations are often found in sections called Permissions, Rights, Legal Notices, Terms and Conditions, or Copyright. It is still best practice and a way to model academic integrity to cite any information which you are allowed to use.

Faculty and staff may have to request permission to use copyrighted materials from their owners in different circumstances, including those which fall outside of the realm of Fair Dealing. These permissions:

  • Can be made with individual copyright holders
  • Must be in writing, which can be email
  • Must be in place before the document is copied
  • Must be sent to the Copyright Officer, with a copy kept in the related School office
  • Are available as templates
  • Need to be accompanied, not replaced by, citations

Faculty and staff may use television/news programs in the following ways:

  • Show a television program at the time of broadcast or livestream
  • Record a television program and review it for up to thirty days
  • Record a news program and use in classroom
  • Broadcasts/livestreams other than news programs may not be recorded and shown in classrooms
  • Illegal/downloaded programs may not be shown
  • Cinematographic works for entertainment/conference purposes require separate licenses prior to viewing

Course packs consist of multiple items or pages from two or more documents which are then stapled or otherwise bundled together. Each one must have a file that includes:

  • The original
  • The Print Shop request
  • Any permissions requests
  • A reference list or bibliography

They may be created for:

  • Packs using non-copyrighted materials
  • Packs with copyrighted material for which you have obtained current and written permission
  • Packs written by college faculty/staff for an Assiniboine course
Course Pack Limitations

You're copying no more than 15% of a published work, or the copying is no more than 15% of a published work but is one of the following:

  • An entire article from a periodical issue or book containing other works
  • An entire single essay, short story, play, or poem from a book or periodical issue containing other works
  • An entire chapter, if it is not more than 20% of the book
  • An entire newspaper article or page
  • An entire entry from an encyclopedia or similar reference work
  • A single item of print music from a book or periodical containing other kinds of works

 

Don’t include in your course pack if any of the following are true:

  • More than 50% of the pages in your course packs are taken from textbooks
  • Your course pack contains more than two extracts from textbooks written by the same author and published by the same publisher within a period of five years
  • The extract is from a textbook and is more than one chapter of the textbook
  • The extract is from a Crown Publication (I.e. published by a provincial government)
  • The work you are planning to copy is unpublished
  • Any extract you plan to copy is available as a separate publication at a reasonable price within a reasonable period of time
  • You have already copied 15% or more of the same publication during this academic year
  • The work you are planning to copy is the original of the artistic work. This does not apply if you are copying an artistic work reproduced in a book or periodical issue containing other works
  • The work is one of the following and does not contain any notice specifically authorizing copying under license with Access Copyright:
    • An instruction manual, including teachers’ guides
    • A “consumable” such as workbooks and tests
    • A letter to the editor in a periodical
    • An advertisement in a periodical
    • A newsletter restricted to fee-paying clientele, which contains commercially valuable information
  • Copies are for use by Assiniboine students, faculty, or staff
  • You are making only enough copies to provide one for each student, two for each faculty member, and whatever you need for administrative purposes
  • You are copying no more than 10% of a published work, or the copying is more than 10% of a published work but is one of the following:
    • An entire article from a periodical issue or book containing other works
    • An entire single essay, short story, play, musical score, or poem from a book or periodical issue containing other works
    • An entire newspaper article or page
    • An entire entry from an encyclopedia, annotated bibliography, dictionary, or similar reference work
    • A single item of print music from a book or periodical containing other kids of works, or
    • An entire chapter
  • You have included the following information on at least one page of each item copied:
    • The international copyright symbol ©
    • A credit to the publisher, or the author or authors of the work, where known
    • The artist or illustrator of any artistic work copied, where known

Don't send copyrighted works via email unless you own the right to do so. If you want to share an e-article, webpage or other electronic resource with others, provide a link to the source in your email.

Alternate formats help provide equal access to information for everyone. 

Some common alternate formats are:

  • Electronic Text (Word, PDF, PowerPoint, etc.)
  • Large Print
  • Closed Captioning
  • Digital Audio (e.g. MP3)
  • Braille

 

The Copyright Act of Canada, Section 32 (2), limits alternate formats:

  1. does not apply if the work or other subject matter is commercially available, within the meaning of paragraph (a) of the definition commercially available in section 2, in a format specially designed to meet the needs of the person with a perceptual disability referred to in that subsection. This means that students requiring alternate formats because of a perceptual disability, or a person acting on their behalf at ACC such as an instructor or staff member, may create an alternate format if one is not available for sale in the required format. Students are not able to upload, email, or otherwise share this alternate format item.


Reproduction in alternate format

  1. (1) It is not an infringement of copyright for a person with a perceptual disability, for a person acting at the request of such a person, or for a non-profit organization acting for the benefit of such a person to:

(a) reproduce a literary, musical, artistic or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability;

(a.1) fix a performer’s performance of a literary, musical, artistic or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability; 

(a.2) reproduce a sound recording, or a fixation of a performer’s performance referred to in paragraph (a.1), in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability; 

(b) translate, adapt or reproduce in sign language a literary or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability; 

(b.1) provide a person with a perceptual disability with, or provide such a person with access to, a work or other subject-matter to which any of paragraphs (a) to (b) applies, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability, and do any other act that is necessary for that purpose; or 

(c) perform in public a literary or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in sign language, either live or in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability.

Individual artists and record companies worldwide mandate music licensing companies, such as Re:Sound, to license their work for public performance. This allows businesses and broadcasters to deal with a one-stop-shop that can grant them a license to play recorded music and ensure that the license fees are distributed fairly and accurately to artists and record companies.

Failure to obtain the required license(s) may result in legal action.

There are several tariffs that Re:Sound enforces. The use of music to accompany live events, tariff 5 A-G, sets out royalties to be paid to Re:Sound for the benefit of artists and record companies for the performance in public or the communication in public of published sound recordings at live events. These tariffs are enforceable through the court process for establishments that owe royalties but refuse to obtain the necessary license.

The tariff’s legal basis comes from the Copyright Act and the Copyright Board, which is a federal tribunal empowered to establish royalties to be paid for the use of copyrighted works.

Whenever Assiniboine has a special event – internal or external – at which music is played, it must be tracked and an event form filled out.

Owners of legal copies of computer programs may make a single reproduction of these programs in only two situations:

  1. An owner of a legitimate copy of a computer program may make one backup copy of that program. The person must be able to prove that the backup copy is erased as soon as he or she ceases to be the owner of the copy of the computer program from which the backup was made
  2. An owner of a legitimate copy of a computer program may also make a single copy of that program by adapting, modifying, or converting the computer program or translating it into another computer language, provided that:
    1. The reproduction is essential for the compatability of the program with a particular computer
    2. The reproduction is solely for the person’s own use and
    3. The copy is erased when the person ceases to be the owner of the copy of the program from which the copy was made
Instructors in Canada may copy, translate, communicate electronically, show or play any copyright-protected work for a test or examination provided the work is not already commercially available in an appropriate medium for the purpose of a test or examination.
Instructors and students can copy and communicate the text of federal and some provincial/territorial statutes, regulations, and court decisions for educational purposes from provinces and territories except Manitoba, Quebec, and Nunavut.
Instructors in Canada may copy, translate, communicate electronically, show or play any copyright-protected work for a test or examination provided the work is not already commercially available in an appropriate medium for the purpose of a test or examination.