copyright   Tags: acadia, access_copyright, cancopy, copying, copyright, fair_dealing, intellectual_property, library  

Works in the "public domain" are not protected by the Canadian Copyright Act and can be freely used and copied by anyone. Works become part of the public domain when their term of copyright protection has expired (for published works, this is 50 years after the end of the calendar year of the author's death), but they can enter the public domain earlier -- even immediately upon publication -- if the author explicitly waives copyright and places them in the public domain.

Different conditions apply to when unpublished works, anonymous and pseudonymous works, films, photographs, and Crown publications enter the public domain.

Our photocopying licence with Access Copyright expired on December 31, 2010. 

As of January 1, 2011, any copying (by reprographic or electronic means) of works in which you do not hold the copyright can only be lawfully carried out under the following circumstances:

1. you are only copying an insubstantial* amount of the work;
2. the work is in the public domain;
3. copying is explicitly allowed by the rightsholder through a Creative Commons licence or similar statement;
4. the work is appropriately licensed by the Library (e.g. many of our electronic journal packages);
5. the copying falls under one of the educational exceptions of the Copyright Act;
6. the copying falls under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act; or
7. the person making the copies has secured the permission of the rightsholder.

Most of the copying for academic purposes at Acadia will fall into #3 and #6 above. For #3, the Library is preparing a tool that will guide you through the permissions for electronic journals and e-books; in the meantime, please ask your liaison librarian. For #6, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) has prepared a Fair Dealing Policy to clarify and codify the somewhat vague provisions of the Copyright Act; Acadia University will comply with this policy.

*According to the Copyright Act, copyright is the sole right to reproduce a work or any substantial portion thereof. The Act does not define "substantial", so whether a portion of a work is substantial or not is a judgement call that takes both quantitative and qualitative assessments of substantiality into account.

• Printed works

• Electronic journals
• Recorded music
  • Downloading
  • Copying
  • Performance in class
• Videocassettes, DVDs, & Digital Movies
• The web

Printed Works

Photocopying

Much of the photocopying that we do at Acadia is allowable under the Copyright Act's fair dealing clause. According to the AUCC Fair Dealing Policy, Acadia faculty, staff and students are allowed to make single copies of 10% of a published work (except for textbooks produced primarily for the post-secondary education market) or any of the following, whichever is greater:

• an entire chapter from a book provided that it does not exceed 20% of the book;
• an entire article from a periodical publication;
• an entire short story, play, poem, or essay from a book or periodical publication;
• an entire entry from an encyclopedia, dictionary, annotated bibliography or similar reference book;
• an entire reproduction of an artistic work from a book or periodical publication;
• a single musical score from a book or periodical publication.

For textbooks procuded primarily for the post-secondary education market, no copying may exceed 5% of the textbook or any of the following, whichever is greater:

• an entire chapter from a textbook provided that it does not exceed 10% of the textbook;
• an entire short story, play, poem or essay from the textbook provided that it does not exceed 10% of the textbook;
• an entire reproduction of an artistic work or a single musical score from the textbook provided that it does not exceed 10% of the textbook.

Each copy made under the Fair Dealing policy must have, on at least one page, the naume of the author or artist (where known), the title of the publication from which the copy was made, the name of the publisher, and the following statement:

This copy is made solely for the use by a student, staff member or faculty member for research, private study, review or criticism. Any other use may be an infringement of copyright if done without securing the permission of the copyright owner.

We can make photocopies that are not covered by the Fair Dealing policy if any of the following apply:

• the work being copied is in the public domain;
• the copying is explicity allowed by the rightsholder through a Creative Commons licence or similar statement;
• the work is appropriately licensed by the Library (e.g. many of our electronic journals);
• the person making the copy has secured the permission of the rightsholder;
• the copying falls under the educational exceptions in the Copyright Act.

Digitizing

Some digitizing is allowable under fair dealing, and more explicitly under the educational exceptions of the Copyright Act. For example, it is acceptable to "make a copy of a work and project an image of that copy with an overhead projector or similar device" as long as the projection occurs on the premises of the university for an audience made up primarily of students and for the purpose of education or training, and as long as the work is not commercially available in a medium appropriate for this purpose. Therefore, a faculty member could scan a printed image and project that image to the class in a PowerPoint presentation; however, she could not post that image to the open web under the educational exceptions, since it would no longer be "on the premises," (although it could be allowable under fair dealing). The Copyright Act defines premises as "a place where education or training...is provided, controlled or supervised by the educational institution." One could argue that since access to Acorn is provided and controlled by Acadia, that anything posted to Acorn is indeed on the premises.

Course Packs

Course packs (compilations of photocopied material made available for sale to students) are still handled by the campus bookstore. Contact Cathy Morine-Collins, Course Materials Manager for the bookstore, at cathy.morine-collins@acadiau.ca / 585-1483.

Electronic Journals

We can make copies of electronic journal articles for research, private study or criticism under the Fair Dealing Policy, but any other copying must be cleared by the rightsholder. Fortunately, many of our licence agreements with the publishers and vendors of electronic journals explicitly allow multiple copying for classroom use, posting to a secure course web site, and other educational uses. However, the permissions vary from publisher to publisher, so it is necessary to check before making copies that exceed fair dealing. Information about what is and is not allowed is usually available from the publisher's web site; you can also ask your librarian for assistance.

Copies of all content licensed through the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) can be distributed, in print or electronically, to every student in a class for teaching purposes. Our CRKN journal licences are with: ALPSP, CAIRN, Cambridge University Press, Érudit, Institute of Physics, Periodical Archive Online, Oxford University Press, Royal Society of Chemistry, SAGE, ScienceDirect (Elsevier), Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley-Blackwell.

Recorded Music

Downloading

File-sharing appears to be legal in Canada at the moment. In a 2004 decision of the Federal Court, Judge Konrad von Finckenstein wrote: "I cannot see a real difference between a library that places a photocopy machine in a room full of copyrighted material and a computer user that places a personal copy on a shared directory linked to a P2P service."

Copying

Private copying of recorded music for private use is legal in Canada. 

Performance in class

Under the educational exceptions of the Copyright Act's fair dealing clause, it is legal to play a sound recording on the premises of an educational institution for an audience made up primarily of students for the purposes of education or training.

Videocassettes, DVDs & Digital Movies

• Downloading
• Using pre-recorded videocassettes and DVDs
  • personal copies
  • rentals
  • library-owned copies
  • faculty/department/school-owned copies
• Recording from TV

Downloading
Downloading movies without permission of the rightsholder is illegal unless the copying falls under fair dealing.

Using pre-recorded videocassettes and DVDs
Videos cannot be shown in the classroom or to a group at any location on campus unless they are covered by public performance rights. These rights to show a video in the classroom or to groups on campus are sometimes included in the purchase price. To cover some videos where this isn’t the case, the university maintains annual licence agreements with rights representatives covering multiple producers/distributors. For still others, it may be possible to acquire public performance rights to cover a specific video from the rights holder. 

• Personal copies
  Personally-owned videocassettes and DVDs cannot be played in the classroom without obtaining a licence for public performance unless they are covered by Acadia's licence agreements with Audio Ciné Films and Criterion Pictures. Videos in these licensors' databases (follow the links to search) have public performance rights except for videos from Mongrel Media.

• Rentals
  Rented videocassettes and DVDs cannot be played in the classroom without obtaining a licence for public performance unless they are covered by Acadia's licence agreements with Audio Ciné Films and Criterion Pictures. Videos in these licensors' databases (follow the links to search) have public performance rights.

• Library-owned copies
  Many library-owned videocassettes and DVDs are purchased with a licence for public performance, meaning that you can play them in the classroom. All or almost all of the library's videocassettes were purchased with public performance rights, but many of our DVDs were not. DVDs which came with public performance rights are labelled as such in the library catalogue. For DVDs which are not labeled for public performance, check the Audio Ciné Films and Criterion Pictures databases; if the DVD is in the database, we have public performance rights through our blanket licences with ACF and Criterion. If the DVD is not labelled as having public performance rights and is not in one of these databases, you must contact the rights holder about public performance rights. Making copies of library-owned videocassettes and DVDs is not permitted.

• Faculty/department/school-owned copies
  Videos covered by Acadia's licence agreements with Audio Ciné Films and Criterion Pictures may be played in the classroom (to see if a video is covered, follow the links and search the licensors' databases by title; if the video is in the database, we have public performance rights). Videos which were purchased by the faculty, department, or school with public performance rights may be played in the classroom.

Recording from TV
Most television programs or movies recorded for personal use may not be shown in the classroom. There is an exception: news programs or news commentary programs (not documentaries) may be copied "for the purposes of performing the copy for the students of the educational institution for educational or training purposes." In the case of news programs, there is a limit on how long the copy can be kept, and the institution must keep records regarding the making, performance and eventual destruction of the copy.

The Web

Links

While it may be a matter of courtesy to ask before linking to another site, it is not a matter of copyright. Creating a link to a web site does not infringe copyright, unless the link takes the form of a copyrighted graphic. For example, using the IBM logo as a link instead of text infringes copyright, but the infringement is in copying the logo, not in making the link.

Text

Original text on the web is protected by copyright, just like text on paper. Any copying without permission of the rightsholder must fall under the fair dealing clause.

Photos & graphics

Original photos and graphics on the web are protected by copyright. There are only two circumstances under which images can be copied from the web without the permission of the rightsholder:

1. the image is in the public domain
2. the copying and use of the copy falls under fair dealing or the educational exceptions in the Copyright Act.

Persons acting under the authority of an educational institution may do the following on the premises* of an educational institution for an audience made up primarily of students and for the purposes of education or training:

• make a manual reproduction of a work onto a dry-erase board, flip chart or similar surface intended for displaying material
• make a copy of a work and project an image of that copy with an overhead projector or similar device, provided that the work is not commercially available in a medium appropriate for this purpose
• reproduce a work and communicate it by telecommunication as required for a test or examination, provided that the work is not commercially available in a medium appropriate for this purpose
• have students perform a dramatic or musical work
• play a sound recording
• copy a news program (excluding documentaries) at the time of broadcast and show it to a class; the copy must be destroyed within a year of making the copy
• play the copy of a news program referred to above within one year after making the copy

* The Copyright Act defines premises as "a place where education or training…is provided, controlled or supervised by the educational institution."