LibGuides: Copyright: Introduction

Introduction

Use information sources in a responsible, ethical, and correct manner.

This LibGuide will help you know the legal correct way to use copyright works or works covered by Creative Commons licences.

Copyright

What is copyright?

A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a dramatic, artistic, literary, or musical form.

So what does this mean?

It simply means that the owner of the creative work has the exclusive right to do or allow the doing of the following:

• Reproducing the work in any manner or form

• Publishing the work

• Intentionally including the work in any film or TV broadcast

• Making adaptations and/ or translations of the work

• Making the work available to the public

What qualifies for copyright?

• Creative works that are original

• The work does not necessarily require a particular level of literary or artistic quality

• What is required is the fact that the author created the work through his/ her own skill

How long does copyright in a work last?

• There are two ways in which this is defined, depending on whether the author owns the copyright or if the copyright is owned by the publisher.

• If it is owned by the author, the copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 50 years after his/ her death

• If it is owned by the publisher, then copyright lasts for 50 years after the last year it was published

Types of copying/reproduction

Printing
Photocopying
Scanning
Digital copying (e.g. downloading)
Electronic storage in databases
Translating or making adaptations of the work
The particular typographic arrangement of a literary or musical work is defined as a published version and is also protected by the Copyright Act.

PLEASE NOTE: Fair Dealing DOES NOT apply to MULTIPLE COPIES – “Subject to multiple copies for class discussion governed by the copyright regulations”.