Copyright Issues

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Copyright Issues

All Canadians automatically hold the copyright on original work they have created unless they were hired or employed by some other person to create it, in which case the employer is the owner. Copyright literally means the right to make a copy. The holder of a copyright to a work is the only person who has the right to make a copy of it in any form, or to permit someone else to do so. The owner of a copyright has the sole right to control any publication, production, reproduction and performance of a work or its translation (Copyright Matters!)

Copyright Licences

A license is a contract which, for specific purposes, allows someone to use a work temporarily. For example

1. Access Copyright (Photocopying)

Institutions (such as our Department of Education) pay a fee to obtain limited copying rights from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Authority. Under Canada’s Copyright Act it is illegal to photocopy most published materials without permission. The Department of Education has signed a license with Access Copyright which authorizes photocopying at our library machine. A poster stating the guidelines is located near the photocopier. For more details see http://www.accesscopyright.ca

2. Public Performances Rights (Videos)

Copyright law requires all videos used in and purchased for schools to have Public Performance Rights. Our Department of Education has negotiated video location/site licenses for PEI schools with two licensing companies.

Can we copy from the internet?

Most material on the Internet is protected by copyright. This includes text (postings to newsgroups, e-mail messages), images, photographs, video clips, and computer software. Therefore, reproduction of any work or a substantial part of any work on the Internet would infringe copyright unless you have the permission of the owner. A work in the public domain is free for everyone to use without asking for permission or paying royalties

Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement is the unauthorized use of copyright material. Plagiarism, another form of infringement is passing off someone else’s work as your own.

Plagiarism is taking someone else’s words, ideas or information and passing them off as one’s own. Some examples of plagiarism:

• using someone else’s material without acknowledging its source.

• paraphrasing or summarizing too close to the original words. Rewording someone else’s ideas using your own words is still plagiarism, unless you provide the source.

• handing in work that was written by someone else