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Guide to Copying for Instructional Purposes at the University of Waterloo

Revised December 7, 2012

This Guide explains your rights and duties when you want to copy or communicate copyrighted material in the classroom.  It clarifies which uses require the securing of permission from rights holders, and which do not. The names and contact information for those on campus who provide support on matters related to copyright are included at the end.

The Waterloo Copyright FAQ and the Fair Dealing Advisory provides additional detail about copying for instructional purposes as well as other purposes. 

Copying Short Excerpts

Supreme Court decisions in 2004 and 2012 have expanded the circumstances under which instructors may use copyright-protected material in the classroom without securing permission or paying royalties.

In particular, teachers, instructors, professors and staff in non-profit institutions may now communicate or make copies of a short excerpt of a work, in paper or electronic format, for each student enrolled in a class or course. 

Section 3 of the University’s Fair Dealing Advisory indicates that:

A single copy of a short excerpt from a copyright-protected work may be provided or communicated to each student enrolled in a class or course:

1. as a class handout;
2. as a posting to a learning or course management system that is password protected or otherwise restricted to students of the university; or
3. as part of a course pack.

Short excerpts may also be included in lecture notes displayed to students in classrooms.

Section 4 of the Advisory defines a short excerpt as:

1. up to 10% of a copyright-protected work (including a literary work musical score, sound recording, and an audiovisual work);
2. one chapter from a book;
3. a single article from a periodical publication;
4. an entire individual artistic work (including a painting, print, photograph, diagram, drawing, map, chart, and plan);
5. an entire newspaper article or page;
6. an entire single poem or musical work from a publication containing other poems or musical scores; and
7. an entire entry from an encyclopedia, annotated bibliography, dictionary or similar reference work provided that in each case no more of the work is copied than is required in order to achieve the allowable purpose.

Note: you may not make copies of multiple short excerpts from the same work for the same group of students during any one term. Doing so would have the effect of providing a copy of substantially the entire work and that is not allowed under fair dealing. 

If you need help to determine if what you wish to copy may be considered fair dealing, please contact Christine Jewell: cjewell@uwaterloo.ca or ext. 35623.

Copying More than a Short Excerpt of a Work

Under some circumstances you may communicate or copy more than is permitted under fair dealing without the direct permission of a copyright holder. In other cases, you must have direct permission. The points below apply to both print and electronic copies.

Works that may be copied without seeking permission

1. Works that are in the public domain, i.e. they are no longer protected by copyright (in Canada, copyright protection generally expires 50 years after the death of the creator).
2. Works that have a Creative Commons licence; such licences often allow others to reproduce an entire work as long as it is properly attributed and not intended for commercial use. Creative Commons licences are typically used for Open Access material.
3. Electronic works for which the University of Waterloo Library, or some other department, has a licence. These licences allow you to share material with your students in specified ways. At the very least, you may give your students a link to the resource. In some cases you may arrange to have a copy included in a courseware package or added to electronic reserves, or you may prepare a PDF for LEARN.
4. Works covered by another exception in the Copyright Act.

Works that may be copied only with permission

Substantial portions of any work not in the public domain, without a Creative Commons licence, not covered under another exception in the Copyright Act, or for which the University has no other licence, may be communicated or copied only with the express permission of the copyright holder. Because such permissions take time to obtain and may include a fee (sometimes quite high), you are encouraged to take advantage of the huge array of licensed electronic resources available through the Library. Using those resources whenever possible can cut costs for your students as well as the University at large.

Note: If you wish to copy a work for which permission is required,  you must get such permission before making the copy(s) and retain a written or email copy of the permission. If your right to make the copy is questioned at a later time, you will need to show evidence that you made the copy with permission from the copyright owner.

Using Web Content

Content on the web is protected by copyright law in the same way as print and other formats, even if there is no copyright symbol or notice. Linking directly to the web page containing the content you wish to use is almost always permissible, although you need to make sure the content you are linking to is not in itself infringing copyright. In addition, if the web-page does not clearly identify the website and content owner, you should also include the full details of the author, copyright owner and source of the materials by the link. This will avoid any suggestion that the website is your own material or that your website is somehow affiliated with the other site.  

If you have reason to believe that the web site may contain content posted without the permission of the copyright owner, you should avoid linking to it. In addition, if you wish to use content in any way other than just linking to it, e.g. preparing  PDF for inclusion in LEARN, you should check the website’s “Terms of Use” or “Legal Notices” section to confirm what conditions apply to the use of the website’s material, including whether educational use is explicitly prohibited. Many websites will allow educational use of their materials.

Copyright contacts

Audiovisual (Instructional Technologies & Multimedia Services, IST)
Cheryl Petrie, Media Resource Specialist, IST 
cpetrie@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 84070 

Bookstore
Shawn Gilbertson, Course Materials Manager
sgilbert@uwaterloo.ca, ext 36078

eReserves & Print Reserves 
Samantha Gibbon, Manager, Resource Sharing and Reserves
slcgibbo@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 36473

Fair Dealing Advisory
Christine Jewell, Liaison Librarian, Copyright and Academic Integrity
cjewell@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 35623

Interlibrary Loans
Samantha Gibbon, Manager, Resource Sharing and Reserves
slcgibbo@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 36473

Learning Management Systems (UW-ACE / Learn)
Jane Holbrook, Senior Instructional Developer (Blended Learning), CTE 
jholbroo@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 35931

Online Courses (Centre for Extended Learning)
Aldo Caputo, Associate Director, CEL 
acaputo@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 37065

Printed Courseware
Madelaine Paterson, Custom Publishing Co-ordinator, University of Waterloo Book Store
courseware@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 33996

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