These guidelines have been developed to help Centennial students, faculty, and employees respect copyright, and were written with reference to the Copyright Act, judgments from the Supreme Court of Canada, and the Centennial College Fair Dealing Policy for Copyright-Protected Work.
Before you can use copyright-protected works in the classroom, your proposed copying must pass two tests:
The following section will help you evaluate whether your proposed copying tends towards fairness. They are not legal counsel. The unique circumstances of each situation may influence the fairness of your proposed copying.
Please contact us if you have any additional questions.
The fairness of any proposed copying may be influenced by six factors, which you must consider before copying and sharing works with your students. These questions are designed to help you evaluate whether your proposed copying tends towards fairness.
If you have further questions, please consult Fair Dealing Explained or contact us.
The purpose of the copying
Will you copy the work for one of the exempted purposes—research, private study, education, criticism & review, news reporting, parody, and satire?
The amount of the copying
How much will you copy? How much of the total work does the copying represent?
The character of the copying
How broadly will you distribute copies of the work? How will you restrict access to them?
Alternatives to copying the work
Can you access the same work, or an equivalent, through library databases? Are there non-copyrighted or freely available alternatives?
The nature of the work
Has the work been previously published? Copying unpublished or confidential documents tends towards unfairness.
The effect of the copying on the work
Will your copying negatively impact the market value of the work?
Copyright Decision Tree
The Copyright Decision Tree provides steps to determine whether you can use a copyright protected work in the way you would like to, both for teaching and for other purposes. Use this in conjunction with other information on this website.
Find more downloadable resources from the copyright team: Resources & Downloads.
| Source | Y/N | Details | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☑ | Insubstantial portion |
Examples of short excerpts include:
Workbooks and other resources that students should purchase cannot be shared. |
|
| ☑ | Short excerpt (see Fair Dealing Policy) | ||
| ☑ | Exams and testing | ||
| ☒ | Substitutes for purchasing course text | ||
| ☒ | Workbook | ||
| ☒ | Personal licence | ||
| Online | ☑ | Publicly accessible |
You can use publicly accessible online material without limitation, as long as it was posted by or with the consent of the copyright holder. Make sure that you do not have to enter a password or bypass a paywall to access the content, and that there are no notices that prohibit educational use. Use the Creative Commons meta-search to find freely shareable online content. |
| ☑ | Legitimately posted | ||
| ☑ | Short excerpt (see Fair Dealing Policy) | ||
| ☒ | Digital lock | ||
| ☒ | Clearly visible notice prohibiting educational use | ||
| Images | ☑ | Print sources |
Images include visual artwork like photographs and paintings, but also organized content such as charts, tables, and data visualizations. You cannot use more than one image from a source under the fair dealing exemption, so you may need to find many different sources to meet your needs. Use the Creative Commons meta-search to find freely shareable online images. Please consult Images for more information. |
| ☑ | Online sources | ||
| ☒ | More than one image per source | ||
| ☒ | Images from paid subscription services (Shutterstock, Getty Images) | ||
| Videos Music |
☑ | Playing in the classroom |
You can play legally purchased copies of video content in the classroom only. You can also play audio recordings and streamed video from Centennial Libraries for your students. Paying for streaming or licensed content is not the same as ownership. If your streaming service or licensed content provider includes a "personal use only" clause, you cannot play their material for your students. You can play news programs and performances while they air, or record and play them at a later date (Copyright Act, 29.5-6). |
| ☒ | Uploading file to eCentennial | ||
| ☒ | Infringing copy | ||
| ☒ | Personal-use Subscription (Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, etc.) | ||
| YouTube | ☑ | Playing in the classroom |
You can play and share YouTube videos with your students, but they must have been posted by the copyright holder or with their consent. When uploaders acknowledge that they are not the copyright holder, you cannot use their videos. Check uploader information by exploring their user profile. Some uploaders may have verified identities. You should always check for notices that prohibit educational use. Use the embed code function to place videos in eCentennial, do not download the file. Permission is required to produce a transcript or add captioning to a video. |
| ☑ | Legitimately posted | ||
| ☒ | Clearly visible notice prohibiting educational use |
| Y/N | Details | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| ☒ | Infringing copy |
You can adapt short excerpts of copyrighted works to create new works (Copyright Act, 29.21):
|
| ☒ | Commercial use | |
| ☒ | Harms market of original work |
Centennial adopted the fair dealing policy drafted by Colleges & Institutes Canada (CICan, formerly ACCC). The policy was developed with reference to the Canadian Copyright Act and governs all copying and distribution of copyright-protected work, performed in connection with the educational work of the College, that uses the fair dealing exemption. Students and faculty must stay within the guidelines of the policy when using the exemption.
The table below can help you determine whether and how you can share a resource with your students. You should start at the top and work your way down until you find the appropriate tier for your resource.
No matter where your resource appears in the table, you should always cite your source.
| Restrictions | Resources | Action |
|---|---|---|
|
None |
Insubstantial portions (½ page or less) U.S. government publications Your own works Public domain materials |
Copy and share these materials without worry. |
|
Few |
Materials licensed by the library Open access publications |
You can usually share these materials with your students, but we recommend using links. Use CLEAR to check the permitted uses for library resources. |
|
Some |
Online materials |
You can usually share these materials with your students, but we recommend using links. You must also ensure that:
|
|
Many |
Materials not licensed by the library Works not freely available online |
You may be able to share short excerpts of these works with your students. See the Centennial College Fair Dealing Policy to ensure that you stay within the fair dealing limits, or contact us about negotiating copyright permissions for more substantial copying. |