GEOG 224 - The Canadian Landscape

However, the Canadian Copyright Act provides provisions for students, faculty and other persons conducting research, private study, education, parody, satire, criticism, review, and news reporting.

This is referred to as "Fair Dealing." Fair dealing recognizes that certain uses of copyright-protected works are beneficial for society.

Students, faculty and staff at Okanagan College may communicate and reproduce, in paper or electronic form, short excerpts from a copyright-protected work for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, or parody.

A short excerpt means:

(a) Up to 10% of a copyright-protected work (including a literary work, musical score, sound recording, and an audiovisual work)

(b) One chapter from a book

(c) A single article from a periodical

(d) An entire artistic work (including a painting, print, photograph, diagram, drawing, map, chart, and plan) from a copyright-protected work containing other artistic works

(e) An entire newspaper article or page

(f) An entire single poem or musical score from a copyright-protected work containing other poems or musical scores

(g) An entire entry from an encyclopedia, annotated bibliography, dictionary or similar reference work.

It is not unusual for people to assume that any material on websites on the Internet is in the public domain and can be used without permission. That is just not the case. A work enters the public domain only when its copyright expires (typically 50 years after the death of the author in Canada and even longer in other countries).

Section 30.04 (1) of the Act provides direction regarding the use of content that you find on the Internet. It states:

Subject to subsections (2) to (5), it is not an infringement of copyright for an educational institution, or a person acting under the authority of one, to do any of the following acts for educational or training purposes in respect of a work or other subject-matter that is available through the Internet:

(a) reproduce it;

(b) communicate it to the public by telecommunication, if that public primarily consists of students of the educational institution or other persons acting under its authority;

(c) perform it in public, if that public primarily consists of students of the educational institution or other persons acting under its authority; or

(d) do any other act that is necessary for the purpose of the acts referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c).

It should be noted that the are certain conditions and non-application of these Section of the Act. It is recommended that you review these. See Section page 57 of the Act to learn more about these exceptions.