Please note: This page was last updated in 2011. Revisions are pending.

Copyright aims to protect the interests of creators of expressive works (text, art, music, charts, maps, photographs, etc.) by only allowing copyright owners the right to reproduce an entire work or a substantial part of it. Reproducing works can include photocopying, scanning, downloading or uploading. Copyright covers most works whether on the Internet or in print, unless stated otherwise on the work. Good academic practice requires attribution when copying the work of others, but restrictions on what can be copied still apply.

Copyright does NOT cover:

• Facts and ideas; these are not protected under copyright
• Insubstantial portions of a work
• Works where copyright has expired (generally 50 years after the death of the creator, regardless where the work was published)
• Other Public Domain materials (e.g. U.S. government information online or in print, works created before copyright law)
• Government of Canada works (Recent changes mean permission is no longer required to reproduce federal government material for non-commercial use unless there is a notice to the contrary attached to the work. Details.)
• Open access materials (creators have specified more open permissions to encourage public use of their online materials e.g. with Creative Commons licenses, have placed them in open access repositories, etc.)
• Works licensed for your use (specific licenses or contracts agreed to with the rights holder take precedence)

Use of copyright materials at Mount Allison University is covered largely by:

1. the Canadian Copyright Act,
2. license agreements with individual rights holders, e.g. library subscriptions to electronic journal databases,
3. agreements entered into by the University, e.g. Access Copyright

It is covered under the fair dealing exception, which includes five categories of uses: research, private study, criticism, review, and news reporting, with attribution, and use is considered fair, such as an article, a book chapter, an entry from a reference work, a short story, play, poem, or essay from a work containing others, or portions of complete works that are not substantial. There are also six criteria to determine "fairness", besides the purpose or use, these include the character (number and distribution of copies), amount (portion of the work), alternatives (more likely fair if alternatives don't exist), nature of the work (whether intended for wide dissemination or private), economic effect of the copying on the owner. Existing custom and practice are also taken into consideration. Various guidelines exist to guide interpretation of fair dealing. See links below.

Or under educational exceptions: Permission or payment are not required to reproduce works on chalkboards, overhead projectors, or similar devices for educational purposes on campus, works required for a test or examination on campus, performances on campus, current news programs or broadcasts, with some limitations. (See CAUT Guidelines below.)

Bill C-11 (Text as introduced at First Reading, Sept. 29, 2011.) - proposes to extend fair dealing to cover parody, satire and educational purposes. It also includes new provisions for digital locks to override these and other existing user rights.

LegisINFO A Parliament of Canada research tool, provides background information on the bill, debates, committee transcripts, and status updates as it goes through Parliament.

CAUT video on Bill C-11 by Jim Turk, Executive Director.

2.) The Mta libraries subscribe to dozens of databases of online journals, electronic books and other materials. The licenses for these materials often include broad provisions for academic uses (e.g. permissions to copy to course management systems, coursepacks, for classroom use and other uses beyond those permitted by the Copyright Act.)

The UBC Electronic Resources License Information Database provides details on the copying permissions allowed by each database. A similar database is in development for MtA.-specific resources. (Note: Individual journals may restrict uses further; check the copyright statement on each article you wish to copy.)

For assistance with linking to permanent URLs, see "Course Reserves and Online Reading Lists" on the Library Services for Mount Allison Faculty Members page.

3.) The Access Copyright Agreement with Mount Allison University (not available) and the 247-page Exclusions list, updated Oct. 31, 2011, gives MtA staff, students and faculty permission, for a fee, to copy some copyright-protected works beyond what fair dealing allows, mainly for print-to-print copying for coursepacks.

Access Copyright does NOT cover:

• anything not covered by copyright
• works on the exclusions list
• works with a notice to prevent copying
• specific kinds of works, e.g. workbooks and other single-use materials, unpublished works, advertisements, letters to the editor, instruction manuals, newsletters, business cases available for sale, Canadian provincial or federal government documents, etc.
• electronic works (MtA. has not signed on to the digital works section of the agreement)

In 2010 Access Copyright applied to the Copyright Board for a new tariff. Since it takes the Board several years to come to a decision, they allowed an interim tariff to take effect. MtA signed on to this interim tariff, although for photocopying only, not for digital copying (covered by Schedule G).

Over 30 universities across the country have opted out of an agreement with Access Copyright since the new tariff was proposed. These universities found some of the new terms unacceptable, such as the exorbitant fee increase (from $3.00 and change per student, plus 10 cents/pg for coursepacks to $45.00 per student), provisions seeming to override users' rights under fair dealing or educational and library exceptions, onerous reporting requirements, requiring access to university computer systems and individual email accounts contrary to most privacy laws and collective agreements, attempts to define copying too broadly to include, among other things, linking.

In general, given that the use of information is changing from print copying to more digital reproduction, many universities did not see that the fee increases were warranted. They argue that copying for research purposes in most cases is covered by a combination of fair dealing, library site licenses and open access, and for teaching, online resources can be linked to rather than copied.

Sources for further information:

Mount Allison University Guidelines and Policies

Mount Allison University Guidelines for Copying (updated April 2011)
- adapted from AUCC policies, in need of updating.

Copyright - Fair Dealing Policy (policy #5320)
- MtA's version of fair dealing (not yet passed by Senate or the Board of Regents).

Other Guidelines, Policies and Advisories

CAUT Guidelines for the Use of Copyrighted Materials April 2011
- a very useful, easy to read, 8-page guide. Points out sources of confusion and misunderstanding.

CAUT Intellectual Property Advisory: Fair Dealing Dec. 2008
- This 9-page advisory describes clearly how to determine fair dealing, with a checklist for academic staff in Appendix A.

CAUT Intellectual Property Advisory: Retaining Copyright in Journal Articles July 2008
- A brief guide to why academic staff should retain copyright and how.

Copyright Law and Related Resources

Canada Copyright Act
- The official Act, from the Dept. of Justice Canada.

Canadian Intellectual Property Office
Information on all aspects of intellectual property, including copyright, patents and trademarks.

Other Copyright-related Sites:

Michael Geist.ca
Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor and Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.

Sam Trosow.ca
Samuel Trosow is Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario. He is jointly appointed in the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Information and Media Studies.

UNB Copyright Quiz
A quick but informative test of your knowledge of common copyright issues.