Copyright Policy

On this page:

1. Purpose
2. Application and Scope
3. Definitions
4. Principles
5. Accountability and Compliance
6. Rules
7. Rules and Guidelines
8. Policy Revision Date
9. Attachments
10. Specific Links

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1. Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to set out rules for the use of literary and artistic works at Mohawk College (the “College”).  All works, whether published in physical format, digital or available on the Internet, may be subject to copyright.  Rights holders have the legal right to control the reproduction, publication and performance of their works in any material form, including the publication and distribution of digital copies via the Internet. The Copyright Policy reflects these values and is communicated to all employees with the understanding that everyone will endeavour to work with others’ materials in this spirit. 

It is the responsibility of all College personnel to understand and act within the confines of this policy.

Refer to the ‘Intellectual Property and Commercialization Principles Policy’ for information respecting the ownership of copyright and other intellectual property for works developed by faculty, staff and students at the College.

2. Application and Scope

This policy applies to all students and College employees either in full or part-time employment, whether compensated or not, including staff in the Academic and Support Staff bargaining units, sessional and part time staff, administrative staff, contractors, consultants, volunteers, students employed by the College using copyrighted works whether in an academic program or in the course of their work for the College. 

3. Definitions

“Course Collection” means: (a) copies of Material assembled into paper or digital collections; and (b) copies of Material posted, uploaded or stored onto Secure Networks, which are made available to students for the purposes of instruction in a course, unit or program offered by the College.

“Librarian” is a member of the College’s academic community. Academic librarians hold a degree from an accredited Master’s level program in library and information studies. Librarians provide non-legal copyright support to the College community. This includes, but is not limited to, providing guidance as they relate to the use of educational materials. Aspects may pertain to issues related to copyright risks, awareness and accountabilities. Responsibilities include responding to copyright queries, working with vendors around terms of use developing informational materials for College stakeholders.

“Material” means copies of literary, artistic, dramatic and/or musical works in any fixed form and whether or not the works are in the Public Domain.

“Public Domain” means literary, artistic, dramatic and/or musical works for which copyright has expired or for which copyright has been expressly waived by the copyright owner. In Canada, copyright in a work generally expires 50 years after the death of all the authors who contributed to its creation.

“Secure Networks” means the computer networks maintained by the College that are only accessible to College students, faculty, staff and other authorized users through the use of passwords or other means of authentication.

4. Principles

The College’s decisions and actions with respect to copyright-protected works reflect the values and behaviours described in the Employee Code of Conduct and the  College’s Intellectual Property and Commercialization Principles Policy.

5. Accountability and Compliance

5.1 Accountability Framework

This policy has been approved by the Senior Leadership Team.

5.2 Compliance

The Office of General Counsel will monitor the effectiveness of this policy and ensure compliance.

For this purpose, General Counsel has the discretion to audit Course Collections and other course material distributed to students from time to time to verify compliance. General Counsel may also audit the use of Secure Networks by students, faculty, staff and users of the library to ensure that only authorized persons are provided access to Course Collections and other digital material made available by the library and may terminate access and/or remove material where suspicious activity is identified.

When copyright is not respected, the College may be liable to the authors and publishers for copyright infringement. Consequently, College students, faculty and staff may be subject to discipline and library users may have their library privileges revoked for violations of this policy.

6. Rules

6.1 Literary and Artistic Works

6.1.1 Access Copyright

Access Copyright is a collective society that administers copyright for a repertoire of works on behalf of the copyright owners as their appointed agent. The College has entered into a license agreement with Access Copyright for the use of works in the Access Copyright Repertoire.

Access Copyright is the largest collective society in Canada which is authorized to administer copyright in literary and artistic works on behalf of writers, visual artists and publishers from around the world. The Access Copyright Repertoire is voluminous, but it is not unlimited. Its online lookup tool at <www.accesscopyright.ca/title-search-permissions&gt; should be used to determine whether a work is part of the Access Copyright Repertoire before relying on the terms of the license agreement discussed below. To reproduce works for other purposes or to reproduce works outside the Access Copyright Repertoire, authorization must be sought from alternative sources. See discussion below under Public Domain & Fair Dealing.

Subject to the limitations discussed below, the Access Copyright licence allows College students, faculty, staff and library users to photocopy or scan excerpts of published works from the Access Copyright Repertoire published in print or digital form for all purposes that support the mandate of the College and for the purpose of interlibrary loans to other institutions.

Limitations:

For Course Collections and other purposes that support the College’s mandate, College students, staff and library patrons may copy up to 20% of a work from the Access Copyright Repertoire or make copies of any of the following from a work in the Access Copyright Repertoire:

• an entire short story, play, poem, essay or article from a volume that contains other published works;
• an entire article or page from a magazine, journal or newspaper;
• an entire entry or article from an encyclopedia, dictionary or other reference work;
• an entire reproduction of any artistic work such as a photograph or painting from a volume that contains other published works; and
• an entire chapter from a book provided its is no more than 25% of that book.

College students, faculty, staff and library users may also make a single copy of a work from the Access Copyright Repertoire in accordance the foregoing limitations for the purposes of interlibrary loans.

With respect to the selected part of an Access Copyright repertoire work, College students, staff and authorized library patrons are authorized to:

• make photocopies, fax, scan and print the selection;
• send the selection by email
• store the selection on a local storage device or medium (e.g. a hard drive, USB stick or on a Secure Networks);
• upload or post copies of the selection within Secure Networks (i.e. LMS) for staff and students;
• project and display the selection in a classroom setting (e.g. on an overhead, LCD or plasma monitor, or on a smart board).

Course Collections cannot be sold or made available to the public via the Internet or other means. Each term, the College is obliged to report the number of paper copies made of each Course Collection to Access Copyright where it includes works from the Access Copyright Repertoire. To ensure compliance with this condition and the terms of the license agreement, only authorized College personnel may make copies of Course Collections.

6.1.2 Other Licenses

Along with the Access Copyright license, the College negotiates direct license agreements with individual publishers whose works are outside the Access Copyright Repertoire. In particular, the College licenses access to digital copies of many textbooks, eBooks and other educational materials through the Ontario Colleges Library Service. College Faculty, staff and students should contact the Librarian to inquire about the availability of material through such licenses when required.

6.2 Musical and Dramatic Works

6.2.1 Music

The College does not currently have a general license with any collective society for the recordal, reproduction, performance or telecommunication of music. The College licenses access to digital copies of many textbooks, eBooks and other educational material in this field (which sometimes includes access to select musical works) through the Ontario Colleges Library Service. College Faculty, staff and students should contact library staff to inquire about the availability of material through such licenses when required.

College students, faculty and staff should contact the Librarian to inquire about the availability of licenses to record, reproduce, perform and/or telecommunicate other musical works when required. Such licenses are sought on an ad hoc basis.

The Mohawk College Radio Corporation (TMCRC) operates as a separate federal corporation and pays royalties to SOCAN annually for a non-commercial radio license pursuant to a tariff approved by the Copyright Board of Canada. SOCAN is the largest collective society in Canada which is authorized to administer copyright in the public performance of musical works on behalf of songwriters, composers, musicians and music publishers from around the world. The payment of royalties under this tariff authorizes TMCRC to perform over the air and over the Internet any of the works in SOCAN’s extensive repertoire. It does not authorize the recording, reproduction or any other form of public performance of works by TMCRC or the College.

6.2.2 Film

The College currently licenses access to digital copies of films through streaming film databases made available by the Ontario Colleges Library Service.

College Faculty, staff and students should contact Librarians to inquire about the availability of licenses to reproduce, perform and/or telecommunicate the works of other film producers when required. Such licenses are sought on an ad hoc basis.

6.2.3 Theatre Productions

College Faculty, staff and students should contact the Librarian to inquire about the availability of licenses to perform and/or telecommunicate the dramatic works when required. Such licenses are sought on an ad hoc basis.

6.3 Public Domain & Fair Dealing Exemption

6.3.1 Public Domain

Under Canadian law, copyright in a work generally expires 50 years after the death of the author. After copyright expires, the work is considered to be in the Public Domain and may be freely copied by anyone without restriction. In some instances, authors may also dedicate a work to the Public Domain or authorize its use subject to a Creative Commons or other open access license. Finally, the governments of Ontario and Canada will generally not object to the reproduction of their publications for non-commercial purposes. (When applicable, the policies of other government authorities should be investigated before making copies).

6.3.2 Works Available via Internet

Canadian law permits educational institutions to reproduce and perform works for an audience primarily composed of students for educational or training purposes where the works are  made publicly available via the Internet provided that the source and the author, where known, are identified. This exception does not apply if: (a) access to the work is restricted to authorized persons by a digital lock or paywall; (b) there is a notice on the work expressly prohibiting its use for educational purposes; or (c) it was known or should have been known that the work was made available via the Internet without the consent of the author.

6.3.3 Fair Dealing Exemption 

Canadian also law recognizes that students, faculty, staff and library users have a legal right to make copies of limited excerpts from copyright-protected works for the purposes of education, research and private study provided that the copies are limited and the manner in which they are used constitutes “fair dealing”.

Consequently, College students, faculty, staff and library users may also make copies of works if:

• The work is in the Public Domain.
• The work is subject to an open access licence (ie. Creative Commons) provided that they comply with any conditions of the license (ie. identifying the author, etc.).
• The work was published by the government of Ontario or Canada and is being used for non-commercial purposes.
• The work is subject to a direct licence between the College and the publisher.
• The work is publicly available via the Internet and the source and the author, where known, are identified.
• The copies constitute short excerpts from a work copied for the purposes of education, research or private study AND the work is dealt with fairly in that:
• • the copies are made from lawful sources and without circumventing any digital locks;
  • the number of copies made is small and digital copies are not made available to the public;
  • the part or the parts of the work copied (considered in their entirety) is quantitatively small when compared to the entire work from which they are copied;
  • the part or parts of the work copied (considered in their entirety) do not qualitatively represent the substance of the work from which they are copied;
  • there are no realistic alternatives to access the work; and
  • the copies will not compete with sales of the original work and any related fees relate solely to the cost of creating and distributing the copies.

6.4 Crediting Authors & Sources

When compiling material for Course Collections or student use from any source, students, faculty and staff should take care to record and include in all copies made, where reasonable, credit for the author, artist or illustrator and the source. This includes the following information where available: (a) full name of the author, artist or illustrator; the (b) title of the work; (c) date created or published where known; (d) date accessed (in the case of online material); and (e) relevant publishing information or URL for online material.

6.5 Library Materials

Subject to restrictions, digital copies of some library materials may also be made temporarily available to faculty, staff and students via Secure Networks and students may be entitled to print one copy of such materials for their records. Students and staff are encouraged to contact library staff for advice on the use of library materials in digital formats.

6.6 Questions and Concerns

If uncertain about compliance with this policy, College students, faculty, staff and library users are encouraged to consult with the Librarian. An evaluation of whether the proposed copying or publication is permitted will be made based on all relevant circumstances.

7. Policy Revision Date

7.1 Revision Date

March 2028

7.2 Responsibility

The Office of General Counsel will review this policy every five years or earlier when required.

8. Attachments

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9. Specific Links

• GC-4100-2013 Intellectual Property and Commercialization Principles Policy