The Canadian Copyright Act protects and promotes the advancement of literary, dramatic and artistic works. Its purpose is to strike a balance between the “user” and the “creator” or “owner” of published works. The basic concept of copyright is to provide creators with certain legal rights over their works.
Few if any creators produce their works without the influence of others. In order to achieve the necessary balance, protecting both the rights of users and the creators/owners, the act provides for particular exceptions. Exceptions permit users to use copyright material without gaining permissions or paying royalties to the copyright holder under certain circumstances. While the most important of these exceptions is fair dealing, there are provisions particular to educational institutions and library, archives and museums as well.
Understanding how to apply the rules of copyright is becoming increasingly important as technology changes the way we access and distribute information. Using material other than your own can be as simple as providing proper credit to the creator, or as involved as contacting publishers and paying royalties. The following rules can be applied to determine when the rights to a work need to be cleared or not. The AUCC Copyright Chart serves as a quick reference guide when applying the rules below.
For the purpose of research, private study, criticism or review, and news reporting it is not an infringement of copyright to deal
“fairly” with published works. To determine if you have “fairly” used the published works of others you must consider:
the quantity of material used; the nature of the work; how you use the work (motive of gain); and the value of the work.
Specific examples
of fair dealing are: a copy of an article from a scientific, technical or scholarly periodical, newspaper article, entry from an encyclopaedia
annotated
bibliography or similar reference material, a short story, play, poem, or essay from a publication containing other works. It is important to remember that copies are for personal use and that proper credit must be given. Fair Dealing only applies to published works.
Copyright is automatic. Regardless of whether the work is registered with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, as soon as the work is fixed (i.e. saved, printed, recorded, etc.) the rules of copyright apply. Canadian Copyright applies for a period of fifty years following the death of the author.
Reproducing works--either manually (dry-erase board, flip chart, etc.) or copied for use with an overhead projector--for classroom use is not an infringement of copyright. This exception does not apply if the material is available commercially, such as a course workbook. Educational institutions may also copy and keep “news programs” or “news commentary programs” for viewing in an educational or training setting for up to one year after the date of the copy. It is important to maintain details of the date of copying, performances, and destruction of material for institution records.
e-Resource is an umbrella term used to describe licensed electronic information resources accessed via the UNB Libraries web site. Materials that are accessed through UNB Libraries can be used for online teaching such as BlackBoard or a website. The stipulation is that access to e-resource material must be provided through a link rather than reproducing the material on the website. To provide access to UNB Libraries eResources it is necessary to provide a link to the specific material. For detailed instructions, please refer to the "Library Elements" module.
Access Copyright is a collective for rights owners; they enforce and collect established tariffs that are distributed to copyright owners. UNB and STU have agreements with Access Copyright that provide copyright clearances beyond what is permissible under the terms of the Act. This agreement covers two separate issues: coursepacks and photocopying.
If you have any further questions on any of the above information please contact Josh Dickison at jjd@unb.ca or 447-3378.