UM Copyright Guidelines

Under Step 1, the relevant perspective from which to consider whether the dealing is for an Allowable Purpose is that of the user, and a large and liberal interpretation must be applied so as to not constrain user rights. This is a relatively low threshold within the post-secondary educational sector, given that education, research, and private study are all Allowable Purposes.  

Under Step 2, the Supreme Court has stated that assessing whether a particular instance of copying or dealing may be considered “fair” requires a consideration of all relevant factors, including the following:

(a)    the purpose of the dealing, which requires an objective assessment of the user’s real purpose or motive in using the Work (such as a commercial purpose, which may be considered less fair), and whether there are reasonable safeguards in place to ensure that Works are actually being used for an Allowable Purpose; 

(b)    the character of the dealing, including whether it involves single or multiple copies, consideration of industry practices, and whether the copy is destroyed after it is used for its specific intended purpose;

(c)    the amount of the dealing from the individual user’s perspective, including the proportion of the Work that is proposed to be copied and the importance of the Work;

(d)    alternatives to copying the Work, including whether there is a non-copyrighted equivalent or a realistic alternative available; 

(e)    the nature of the Work, including whether it is published or unpublished; and

(f)    the effect of the dealing on the Work, including whether the copy will compete with, or otherwise adversely affect the commercial market of, the original Work.

Fair dealing is a matter of impression that depends on the facts of each situation, and the fair dealing factors are not conditions that must be met but non-exhaustive considerations that ought to be weighed in evaluating fairness. The Supreme Court of Canada has also acknowledged that fair dealing guidelines are important to an educational institution’s ability to actualize fair dealing for its students, in a manner that is consistent with the balance between users’ rights and creators’ rights under the Copyright Act. In the educational context, instructors have been recognized in Canadian law to share a symbiotic purpose with their students, to the extent that they provide copies of Works (for the purposes of education, research and/or private study) to facilitate the Fair Dealing Rights of each of their individual students. 
 

Copyright exists in every original literary, musical, artistic, and dramatic work. However, copyright subsists only for the period of time prescribed by the Copyright Act. After its term of copyright protection has expired, a Work is said to be in the public domain. Determining whether a Work is in the public domain can be complicated, however, as the duration of copyright differs depending on a Work’s authorship and format. For more information, please contact the University’s Copyright Office at um.copyright@umanitoba.ca if you need assistance to determine whether a Work is in the public domain. If a Work is in the public domain, you are free to use it without restriction, and there is no need to consider fair dealing. However, if in doubt, you should presume that the Work is protected by copyright. 

The University has existing licence agreements with various publishers that may allow Teaching Staff and Other Staff to copy and use Works in accordance with those licence terms. Please contact the University’s Copyright Office at um.copyright@umanitoba.ca if you need assistance to determine whether a Work is licensed by the University. If the Work that you wish to use is licensed, then you can proceed to copy the Work as specifically permitted by the licence.  

In addition to the Fair Dealing Right, there are other exceptions under the Copyright Act that allow certain reproduction, performance and/or communication of Works to be done for specific educational purposes. Please see sections 29.4 to 30.04 of the Copyright Act, or https://umanitoba.ca/copyright/guidelines/exceptions for more information about these educational exceptions. 

The copy must be a “Short Excerpt” containing no more of a Work than is required in order to achieve the Allowable Purpose, which is either:

(a)    up to 10% of a Work; or
(b)    no more than:
(i)    one chapter from a book;
(ii)    a single article from a periodical;
(iii)    an entire artistic work (including a painting, print, photograph, diagram, drawing, map, chart and plan) from a Work containing other artistic works;
(iv)    an entire newspaper article or page; 
(v)    an entire entry from an encyclopedia, annotated bibliography, dictionary or similar reference work,
 

whichever is greater.

If you wish to copy an entire short story, dramatic work, poem, musical work, or work of fiction from a Work that is part of a compilation or collective Work containing other Works, please contact the University’s Copyright Office at um.copyright@umanitoba.ca. 

A single copy of a Short Excerpt from a Work may only be provided to students registered, enrolled or engaged in a course, unit or program of academic, continuing, professional or vocational study administered or hosted by the University, which may include a person who is granted deferred standing in a course, as follows: 
(a)    as a class handout;
(b)    as a posting to a learning or course management system that is password protected or otherwise restricted to, and accessible only by, students in the specific university course, unit or program (in each case, a “LMS”); or
(c)    as part of a course pack compiled by the University bookstore or another entity or department controlled by the University, 
and it is recommended (if practical) that each such copy, or the LMS, includes a notice indicating that Short Excerpts are being copied in reliance on the Fair Dealing Right, and advising students to only use materials for their personal Allowable Purposes, and not to communicate or share materials with others.  

Where the Fair Dealing Right allows the copying of only a portion of a Work, no member of the Teaching Staff or Other Staff may make copies of multiple Short Excerpts with the effect of exceeding the copying limits set out in Section 1 of these Fair Dealing Guidelines. 
 

Teaching Staff and Other Staff may not obtain a Work for copying under these Fair Dealing Guidelines by circumventing a technological protection measure (commonly referred to as digital locks), such as a paywall.  

Any fee charged by the University for copying a Short Excerpt must not exceed the actual costs incurred by the University, including overhead costs, in making the copy.

Copies of Short Excerpts made for the purpose of news reporting, criticism, or review must mention the source and, if given in the source, the name of the author(s) or creator(s) of the Work.

These Guidelines should not be applied to the following types of Works:

• Unpublished works
• Consumables
• Proprietary workbooks, cards, assignment sheets or test and examination pages
• Instruction manuals
• Business cases (unless expressly permitted)
• Newsletters with circulation restricted to fee paying clients or members

• Use materials you own the copyright in (always check your publishing agreement for copyright restrictions on published works).
• Direct your readers to resources available from UM Libraries.
• Use a link instead of copying electronic resources from UM Libraries or from any internet-based source. The Reading Lists tool in UM Learn can be used to include all your e-resources in a single source.
• Use electronic material that has liberal terms of use.
• Select a book as a required textbook for a course.
• Use a copyright-friendly equivalent, such as a work in the Public Domain which the copyright has expired in, a work with a Creative Commons licence, or an open access work.
• Contact the UM Bookstore to create a Reading List/course pack of course materials for your students.
• Create a list of references and ask readers to locate the sources independently in the library or online.

Depending on the circumstances, a student may copy or communicate a short excerpt of a copyright protected work based on the fair dealing exemption in the Copyright Act. However, terms of use may prevent the application of the fair dealing exemption for electronic resources. For example, the university has entered into agreements for the use of electronic library resources, some of which may have restrictive licence terms. Students need to be aware of these licence terms when using electronic library resources.

The university does not condone copyright infringement by students. Students who copy or communicate copyright protected works should either be certain that copying or communicating the works falls within one of the exemptions in the Copyright Act, that licence terms allow its use, or that permission was obtained from the copyright owner.

The university is not liable for any infringing copies made or communicated by students, including copies made or communicated using copiers or scanners made available by the university.

The university does not have control over students who post content to the internet, including UM Learn, or who attach content to emails. However, students who make or post infringing copies could face disciplinary action for academic misconduct. See Academic integrity for more information.

For copyright information related to graduate students and their theses, see Copyright in thesis or practicum section in Copyright support for students.