This page contains frequently asked questions about respecting copyright, and will be updated as new questions arise.
Have a question not answered here? Please contact us! Email: copyright@centennialcollege.ca
Do I own the copyright in my work?
Yes. Students retain copyright in all works created during their course of study.
What can I legally copy?
You may copy materials for which you have the copyright holder’s permission. This includes making copies from materials that the college has licensed (check the terms of use on CLEAR for the specific e-journal or e-book provided by the Centennial Library). Please contact copyright@centennialcollege.ca for assistance to confirm whether the terms of the license allow your use.
Fair dealing allows you to make copies for yourself for the purposes of education, private study, research, review, criticism, parody, satire, or news reporting, so long as your dealing is fair. Please review the Copyright Notice for more information.
Who do I talk to at Centennial College if I have a copyright question?
Please contact the copyright team at the library at the following email address: copyright@centennialcollege.ca
Where can I find images that can be used without permission?
With respect to images in particular, some websites allow you to search specifically for images that have been licensed for reuse or that are in the public domain. There are some excellent resources for finding these types of images, including:
Wikimedia Commons: A database of nearly 20 million freely usable image, sound, and video files. To find any specific instructions for reusing or attributing images, check the “licensing” section on the image page.
Flickr Commons: A wonderful collection of public domain images from a variety of libraries, archives, and museums, including the Library of Congress, NASA, the Getty Research Institute, the Museum of Photographic Arts, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and many more.
Creative Commons Search: A meta-search tool which can be used to find CC-licensed images on Google Images, Fotopedia, Europeana, etc., as well as other CC-licensed works.
For more image resources, have a look at our Image Sources Guide. For information on how to attribute Creative Commons-licensed images, see our Image Citation Guide.
Can I post my instructor's lecture notes and slides online?
No. Posting materials provided by your instructor to the web without permission may result in copyright infringement and a violation of college policy.
Do I have to acknowledge when I use GenerativeAI, such as ChatGPT and Midjourney, to create a work?
Yes, you should acknowledge which elements of the work were generated by Artificial Intelligence. Standard citation styles have samples of how to do so. Refer to the Centennial Libraries APA Style and MLA Style LibGuides to get started.
Creating proper citations for your work can seem daunting, but the library has resources to answer your questions!