Copyright and fair dealing guidelines
Guides
What is Copyright law?
The federal Copyright Act provides protection to creators of literary, artistic, dramatic or musical works, and other subject matter such as performances, sound recordings and communication signals. Reproduction of a substantial portion of any copyright-protected work requires permission from the copyright holder, unless that reproduction falls within one of the exceptions set out in the Copyright Act.
A work is protected by copyright automatically as soon as it is put into a fixed form (fixed form refers to when an item is fixed to a material form. This covers a wide range of creations including books, poetry, paintings, plays, musical composition, drawings, etc.). There is no requirement to affix a copyright symbol © to a work for that work to be protected by copyright. Most material found on the open web is protected by copyright.
The Copyright Act includes specific limited exceptions such as the fair dealing exception. The fair dealing exception is available to anyone and can be read about in further detail here: https://fair-dealing.ca/ and https://fairdealingdecisiontool.ca/. Further, there are exceptions for certain categories of users of copyright-protected materials such as individuals acting on behalf of educational institutions (ex: AUArts). These exceptions are intended to provide a balance between the rights of creators or works and the rights of users of those works, to best serve the broader public interest.
For more in-depth and specific information about copyright and fair dealing see Fair Dealing Guidelines, Copyright FAQ, Creative Commons, Licensing FAQ, or contact us at library@auarts.ca.