Copyright Basics

As a tutor, you need to be aware of Canadian copyright laws. What exactly to you need to keep in mind? And what is copyright? Copyright literally means “right to copy”. From time to time, you may need to refer to a book, an internet source, etc. and you may wonder what exactly you can copy without breaking any laws.

What is copyright? Copyright is a property right. Most of us think that property is a tangible thing – your house, car, belongings, etc. There are separate laws for that, but for tutoring purposes, we are going to focus on copyright issues.

“Copyrights, by contrast, deal with non-physical objects or what is commonly referred to as “intellectual property”. These are objects that do not exist in physical form, but of which we can still make ownership claims. The lyrics to a song or the code for a computer program, for example, are not physical property. Nevertheless, we would still say these objects can be owned, just as one would own a house or car” (Makarenko, 2009).

”Copyright law in Canada protects a wide range of works. If you wish to reproduce a part of a copyrighted work, you may only copy the work if you have permission from the copyright holder or if your copying falls within one of the exceptions set out in the Copyright Act that allows for such copying.

The Copyright Act provides exceptions which allow copying, in paper or electronic form, under certain circumstances for universities or persons acting under the authority of a university. One such exception is the “fair dealing exception” (KPU University Library, 2013)

Fair Dealing

What exactly is Fair Dealing? The Copyright Act provides that it is not an infringement of copyright to deal with a work for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, and parody, provided the dealing is “fair” (KPU University Library, 2013)

Fair Dealing Guidelines

Under Fair Dealing you can copy and communicate in paper or digital format up to 10% of the work or:

• one chapter from a book
• one article from a journal issue
• one article or page from a newspaper issue
• one entry from a reference work (e.g. encyclopedia, dictionary)

Can be in the form of a class handout, email, posting in Moodle or as part of a course pack

Under Fair Dealing you can:

• Copy up to 10% of an audio or video work or one track from an album (as long as you are not breaking a Technology Protection Measure (TPM))
• Copy one image from a compilation (e.g. book, atlas) or up to 10% of a stand-alone image (e.g. painting, poster, wall map). You cannot copy an entire stand-alone image.
• Copy a short excerpt of material found on the internet (short excerpt is determined by the type of material you find from the Internet)

Under Exceptions in the Copyright Act you can:

• reproduce an entire textual work (book, journal article) or image for display in class or for use in exams if a copy in the required format is not readily commercially available
• reproduce an entire work from the Internet (image or text) and communicate to your students as long as you are not breaking a TPM or there is no clearly visible notice prohibiting copying; TPMs or Technological Protection Measure include passwords or regional encoding

The KPU Library provides an excellent chart to help you identify how to use copyright protected materials at KPU. http://libguides.kpu.ca/ld.php?content_id=6975326

Online Activities:

1. Read this page about Copyright in Canada and at KPU
   https://libguides.kpu.ca/copyright/students
2. View the PowerPoint Presentation: Copyright, What’s New, What’s Not
3. Complete this Quiz: Copyright quiz – you can redo it until you get them all right.
   (if the quiz page comes up blank, save the file and reopen with a pdf reader such as Adobe)

Copyright References

Wanda Noel & Jordan Snel, Barristers and Solicitors. Copyright Matters! (2012). Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.

Jay Makarenko. Copyright Law in Canada: An Introduction to the Canadian Copyright Act (2009). Retrieved from http://mapleleafweb.com/features/copyright-law-canada-introduction-canadian-copyright-act

Copyright and You. KPU Polytechnic University Library. (2019). https://libguides.kpu.ca/copyright