The copying and use of all materials at Capilano University is governed by the Canadian Copyright Act, guided by the University's Copyright Policy (B.601) and - in the case of subscribed electronic resources - regulated by individual licences.
This guide is primarily for instructors to facilitate the appropriate copying, distributing, and sharing of materials in an educational setting and covers:
Copyright is a set of rights granted by law to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute, and adapt the work. Copyright law tries to balance these creators' rights with the needs of users who access material protected by copyright. In Canada, we follow the Canadian Copyright Act, even though we may be using materials produced outside of Canada.
What does copyright protect?
Copyright covers original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, whether published or unpublished. This includes works on the Internet. Copyright protection is automatic: a work is protected by copyright as soon as it is fixed (e.g., a digital file is saved); no registration is needed.
What does copyright not protect?
Copyright does not cover ideas, only the expression of ideas. It also does not cover facts (e.g., math formulas), commonly known information, names, short phrases or titles.
How long does copyright last?
Copyright spans the author's life plus 70 years (to end of the calendar year). After the term of copyright protection expires, the work enters the public domain.
Note: The term of copyright protection changed from life + 50 years to life + 70 years on December 30, 2022, in accordance with CUSMA. This change does not affect any works already in the public domain.
What is the public domain?
Works in the public domain are owned by the public and are free of copyright restrictions. Works can be in the public domain because the copyright term expired, the work is not eligible for copyright, or the author has released the work into the public domain.
Publicly available does NOT equal public domain . In other words, if a work is publicly available (e.g., on the Internet) it is not necessarily part of the public domain.
Capilano University Library Copyright Guide by Capilano University Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence.