Library:Help for Faculty/Copyright and You
| One intellectual property right that is very important to UBC faculty, staff and students is copyright. Infringing copyright is a serious matter and UBC requires each of its faculty, staff and students to comply with copyright. See the suite of guides, links and helpful information in the Instructors portal and the Copyright at UBC website. |
Print Materials
If you wish to scan or photocopy a substantial part of copyrighted work, you may only do so if you have permission from the copyright holder or if your copying falls within one of the exceptions set out in the Copyright Act. The University has prepared Copyright Guidelines, Fair Dealing Requirements, and a number of Copyright FAQs that outline the exceptions available to you and how they should be applied in particular situations. If you have questions about the information in these resources, please refer to the Contacts page or send your query directly to copyright.services@ubc.ca.
- Note: you can copy and distribute short excerpts from print materials to your students, provided that you comply with UBC's Fair Dealing Requirements.
- If you want to distribute copies that exceed the copying thresholds in the Fair Dealing Requirements, then UBC Bookstore will obtain copyright clearances (permission from rights holders) for these materials and make them available to your students as a course pack. The Bookstore requires 2 - 3 weeks notice before start of term "RUSH" periods and complete citation information to produce your course pack on time. See the Bookstore's Custom Course Packs for Curriculum page for more information.
Materials on the Web
Resources such as webpages, online documents, digital images, sound & video clips, software, computer files etc are also protected by copyright, so if you want to use them, you have to either fall within one of the Copyright Act’s exceptions or have permission from the copyright owner. For more information about using internet materials for educational purposes, please see UBC's Instructor FAQ or email copyright.services@ubc.ca for assistance.
| Please note that materials on the web are often subject to restrictions that limit your ability to use these materials under Fair Dealing and the other exceptions in the Copyright Act. |
Website legal notices (usually labelled "terms of use" or "terms of service") and end-user license agreements (or "click-through" agreements) are generally understood to be legally enforceable contracts, and the terms of these contracts often restrict the making or dissemination of copies and limit Fair Dealing rights.
- If there is a conflict between the terms of a contract and the Fair Dealing Requirements, then the terms of the contract apply so it is important to check the terms of any relevant legal notices or agreements before copying or distributing materials that you obtain online.
- Similar usage restrictions also apply to many online materials that are licensed through UBC Library. For more information on these restrictions, please click on the "Licensed Materials" tab, above.