FAQ Common Situations
Applying copyright laws and rules to everyday situations at Western.
2.1 May I link to a copyright-protected work from a website or in an e-mail sent to the class?
2.2 May I copy and e-mail something to my students?
2.3 May I play music in class?
2.4 May I copy and show a television show in class?
2.5 I’ve requested clearance directly from a copyright holder, and haven’t received a response within a reasonable period; may I go ahead and copy?
2.6 May I copy and distribute chapters from three different texts as supplementary reading for my students?
2.7 May I copy a journal article into the conference package for use of the participants attending the keynote session I’ve been hired to present?
2.7.1 Does the Education Exception apply to making and distributing a copy of a journal article to participants at the keynote presentation of a professional conference on campus?
2.7.2 Does Fair Dealing apply to making and distributing a copy of a journal article to participants at the keynote presentation of a professional conference on campus?
2.8.1 How do I qualify for a statutory exception to post a DVD into OWL?
2.8.2 May I post a link in OWL to videos available elsewhere online?
2.8.3 May I post a DVD to course reserves in the library and link to it through OWL?
2.1 May I link to a copyright-protected work from a website or in an e-mail sent to the class?
Yes, in virtually all cases, linking to a copyright-protected work (rather than reproducing and uploading it into the learning management system or another website, or including it or attaching it to an e-mail) can be done without risk of infringement.
2.2 May I copy and email something to my students?
Generally, no. E-mail is not Western’s recommended platform for making copyright protected material available to students. Reproducing and “telecommunicating” copyright-protected material, either in the body of an e-mail message or as an attachment isn’t covered by the Copyright Act. It could be argued that by using a freely available e-mail platform such as Gmail, works may be more widely exposed than to the intended group of students and risk infringement.
Sending a link to your students is the preferred alternative. If the material is available through one of our subscription databases, e-mailing the durable or persistent link to it is always OK. Your students then use the link to access the materials themselves, first authenticating when required. You also may be able to post the material into your OWL course and direct students to access the copy there.2.3 May I play music in class?
The Educational Institutions exception in the Copyright Act applies to playing music in class, which the Act considers public performance. Your dealing with the work satisfies the conditions for the Education exception stipulated in the Act because it will be:
- for educational purposes, and not for profit,
- on the premises of the institution, and
- before an audience that primarily consists of students.
However, there are additional conditions that apply.
Performing music is acceptable provided the copy that you perform is not an infringing copy. Therefore, using a purchased CD or a track purchased for download from a service such as iTunes is allowed. A copy illegally downloaded from the Internet would not be allowed.
See Western’s Educational Institutions Exceptions Guidelines for additional detail.
2.4 May I copy and show a television show in class?
The Educational Institutions exception in the Copyright Act applies to showing videos or DVDs in class, which the Act considers public performance. Your dealing with the work satisfies the conditions for the Education exception stipulated in the Act because it will be:
- for educational purposes, and not for profit,
- on the premises of the institution, and
- before an audience that primarily consists of students.
However, there are additional conditions related to the kind of program reproduced that apply.
For television programs, the Act permits making a single copy of a news or a commentary program only for performance in class. It excludes documentaries and general entertainment programs such as sitcoms in what is permitted. These require clearance from the copyright owner before performing in class.
You can make a copy of a broadcast when it is televised and retain it for 30 days in order to decide if you want to perform it in class. After 30 days it must either be destroyed or clearance to perform it sought from the copyright holder before showing it to your class. There may be royalties or fees associated that further impact the performance, as well as record keeping requirements regarding the copy and the performance of it that may also be needed.
See Western’s Educational Institutions Exceptions Guidelines and Seeking Clearance Guidelines for additional details.
2.5 I’ve requested clearance directly from a copyright holder, and haven’t received a response within a reasonable period of time; may I go ahead and copy?
If your analysis using Western’s Copyright Decision Map has determined that clearance is necessary, copying can't happen until that clearance is received. Whether you make the request yourself or ask for assistance from Western’s Bookstore, securing clearance always adds time to the process, 2-8 weeks or more.There may be occasions when clearance is denied or not received in a timely manner. Likewise there may be occasions when your request receives no response at all. In all instances clearance is necessary on order to copy and selecting alternate material or achieving the same purpose another way, such as posting a link to a digital version available elsewhere online, may be necessary.
See Western’s Seeking Clearance Guidelines for additional details.
2.6 May I copy and distribute a chapter from three different texts as supplementary reading for my students?
You may, if it falls within the Fair Dealing exception under the Copyright Act. Follow Western's Fair Dealing Analysis to apply the fair dealing exception to particular situations.
To satisfy the Fair Dealing exception, the purpose of the dealing, as it is articulated in the Act and the scope of the dealing, as it is outlined in the 2004 Supreme Court CCH decision, must be considered.
Educational use is specifically named as an allowable purpose in the Copyright Act.
Scope requires an analysis of six factors that together determine degrees of fairness applying to the dealing. The factors are:
- Purpose
- Character of the dealing
- Amount of the dealing
- Nature of the work
- Available alternatives
- Effect on the work
The scope analysis in this case would encompass several factors. It is for an educational purpose and its character is that it is distributed only to the students in a particular university class rather than to a wider audience. The amount is within what is typically considered fair; 10% of a work or a single book chapter or journal article. For nature, alternatives and effect, presumably these are the only portions of the texts with specific relevance to the course. Reproducing and distributing the chapters is the most economical way to ensure the students receive supplementary material considered important to the course curriculum, even though it is published and offered for sale in the texts.
When taken together, the scope analysis weights in favour of this particular dealing being fair.
Follow Western's Fair Dealing Analysis to apply the fair dealing exception to particular situations and see Western’s Fair Dealing Exception Guidelines for additional details.
2.7. May I copy a journal article into the conference package for use of the participants attending the keynote session I’ve been hired to present?
Unless you seek clearance from the copyright owner, this dealing would likely constitute infringement. Assuming term of copyright has not expired; reproducing the entire article constitutes a substantial amount so the work would be copyright-protected. Seeking clearance from the copyright-owner will be necessary before reproducing the article in the conference package.
See Western’s Copyright Decision Map for additional details.
2.7.1 Does the Education Exception apply to making and distributing a copy of a journal article to participants at the keynote presentation of a professional conference on campus?
To qualify for the Education statutory exception, the dealing must satisfy some conditions. It must be
-
- for educational purposes, and not for profit,
- on the premises of the institution, and
- before an audience that primarily consists of students.
Even though the conference is at the university, and an educational or training purpose could perhaps be argued, the audience is not primarily Western students and the event requires registration and payment of fees. Clearance from the copyright owner will be needed in order to distribute the article to conference participants.
See Western’s Educational Institutions Exceptions Guidelines for additional details.
2.7.2 Does Fair Dealing apply to making and distributing a copy of a journal article to participants at the keynote presentation of a professional conference on campus?
To qualify for the Fair Dealing exception, purpose and scope must be considered.
As stated in the Act, the purpose for reproduction must be for one of:
-
- research,
- private study,
- education,
- parody or satire,
- criticism or review, or
- news reporting.
A conference presentation or workshop would not be considered one of these.
Of the scope factors, one is not more important than others and all six do not necessarily need to be satisfied. Rather, taken together all of them influence degrees of fairness and subsequent sanction for copying. As stated in the 2004 Supreme Court CCH ruling, they are:
-
- Purpose
- Character of the dealing
- Amount of the dealing
- Nature of the work
- Available alternatives
- Effect on the work
The Purpose factor would not be satisfied in your dealing.
In terms of Character, you will make multiple copies widely available to conference delegates. This would be considered less fair than making a few copies distributed to a controlled group like a class or tutorial.
Amount in this case might be within the specified parameter, since the general rule of thumb is 10% or a single article from a periodical.
As for Nature, the article you want to use is already published as opposed to an unpublished manuscript that would benefit from wide distribution.
For Available Alternatives, distributing copies made from a non-copyright-protected original rather than the one published in the journal (if something like the author's preprint exists) might weigh in favour of fairness. However, in that case seeking clearance from the author would still be necessary.
Regarding Effect, your dealing potentially has a negative impact on the journal since you would be allowing unrestricted access to material that is available for a fee or subscription.
Taken together the negatives outweigh positives in a fair dealing analysis and clearance should be received in order to distribute the article at the conference
Follow Western's Fair Dealing Analysis to apply the fair dealing exception to particular situations and see Western’s Fair Dealing Exception Guidelines for additional details.
2.8 May I copy a set of educational DVDs my department purchased and post into OWL for my students to access for review purposes?
Copying and uploading all of the purchased DVDs in their entirety into OWL is not permitted unless permission is received from the copyright holder - likely the distributor/publisher/vendor from whom your department purchased them.
This permission may be granted in the acceptable use information or licensing agreement that likely accompanied the purchase. The licence, which could be in the form of a disclaimer at the start of each DVD, should indicate what use is licensed. Posting to an institutional learning management system would need to be stated in its terms. The agreement should also indicate an acceptable amount, such as “copying short excerpts”. Unless this dealing falls within what is allowable under the licence, copyright clearance needs to be secured.
2.8.1 How do I qualify for a statutory exception to post a DVD into OWL?
To qualify for a statutory exception several conditions and requirements need to be met:
1. Copying needs to be made from a legal version, without circumventing any technological protection measures.
2. To satisfy the conditions of the Educational Institutions exception the dealing must be:
-
- for educational purposes and not for profit,
- on the premises of the institution, and
- before an audience that primarily consists of students.
The Educational Institutions Exception Guidelines does not include copying the entire work to telecommunicate, which includes posting to the learning management system.
3. To satisfy the conditions for the Fair Dealing exception, purpose and scope must be considered.
As stated in the Act, the purpose for reproduction must be for one of:
-
- research,
- private study,
- education,
- parody or satire,
- criticism or review, or
- news reporting.
In the case of copying a DVD to OWL, the dealing would be considered education so OK for purpose.
Of the scope factors one is not more important than others and all six do not necessarily need to be satisfied. Rather taken together all of them influence degrees of fairness and subsequent permission for copying without seeking formal clearance. As stated in the 2004 Supreme Court CCH ruling, they are:
-
- Purpose
- Character of the dealing
- Amount of the dealing
- Nature of the work
- Available alternatives
- Effect on the work
Copying a complete DVD to OWL meets purpose and character since it is for educational use and distributed via the secure learning management system to a discrete group, the students in your class. Amount, however, exceeds the portion of the work permitted under the exception – typically 10% of the work. The DVD is produced and made available for purchase, which would weigh against fairness when considering nature and effect. Taken as a whole, the analysis favours securing clearance before posting.
Follow Western's Fair Dealing Analysis to apply the fair dealing exception to particular situations and see Western’s Fair Dealing Exception Guidelines for additional details.
2.8.2 May I post a link in OWL to videos available elsewhere online?
If the videos are available elsewhere online you can post a link to them in OWL and have the students access the content themselves. This, in effect, invokes the research and private study purpose of the fair dealing exception, as it transfers the accountability to the student.
2.8.3 May I post a DVD to course reserves in the library and link to it through OWL?
We are limited by the same restrictions when considering copying DVDs to course reserves in the library and linking to this library version in OWL or copying and including on a memory stick or DVD in a course pack for the students. Both dealings are bound by the same considerations.
Clearance needs to be acquired, either through an existing license or terms of use agreement included in the sale of the DVDS, or by asking the vendor for clearance, in order to post the DVDs into OWL without infringing copyright.
See Western’s Seeking Clearance Guidelines for additional details.
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Created 02/26/2014
Updated
