U of S Requirements for use of Copyrighted Material

Important New Copyright Procedures for all Teaching Staff and Faculty

As a result of the June 2012 decision to remain outside Access Copyright, the University of Saskatchewan has been working to help ensure members of the university community are using copyright materials appropriately.  We would like to thank the university community for their support as we have undertaken these challenges over the past year.

After extensive consultation with department heads and deans’ executive committees, the Copyright Advisory Committee has developed a system for tracking copyright material distributed to students.  This tracking system will help ensure that material being distributed has the appropriate permissions, which helps the compensation of creators and minimizes the risk of copyright infringement. 

For Faculty and Teaching Staff
Sarting January 2013 all teaching staff and faculty will be asked to provide, at the start of each semester, the syllabus for their course, which is to include the readings for the course, and complete a Copyright Clearance Reporting Form, on which they will provide information on all material that requires a transactional license (the definition of transactional license can be found on the accompanying fact sheet).  For all additional material, teaching staff and faculty will simply have to indicate that their use of the material is permitted under various exceptions or existing permissions.   A signed Statement of Copyright Compliance, indicating understanding of the university’s policy on the Use of Material Protected by Copyright and that use of material is in compliant with the policy, must also be submitted to their department head, director, or dean in non-departmentalized colleges. 

For Department Heads
The department head has the responsibility to ensure the forms have been completed and submitted by the faculty members and teaching staff for whom they are responsible and are being asked to indicate this by way of a Departmental/College Statement of Copyright Compliance. These materials will be kept on file by the department head for possible review by the Copyright Coordinator.

Upcoming Changes
We understand that the addition of these forms may create some additional administrative work in certain colleges and departments and we want to provide the assurance that this is an interim measure to help ensure compliance.  The U of S is investigating a more automated and less cumbersome method of tracking our uses of materials protected by copyright and anticipate that a system should be up and running soon.  In the meantime, we hope the university community will continue to be patient and understanding.

Resources Available
Information sessions will be arranged over the coming weeks to help with this transition.  Please contact the Copyright Coordinator at copyright.coordinator@usask.ca to arrange a session or for more information

Copies of the new copyright compliance forms can be found here:

The Use of Materials Protected by Copyright policy can be found on the website of the Office of the University Secretary: http://www.usask.ca/university_secretary/policies/operations/Copyright.php

 

 

The University of Saskatchewan is committed to compliance in all copyright matters. It is the responsibility of each individual to comply with copyright laws and respect copyright ownership and licensing. The use of copyright materials without proper consent may be actionable under both the Copyright Act and the Criminal Code. In addition to any actions that might be taken by any copyright owner or its licensing agent, the University will take any breaches of this copyright policy very seriously. In the case of employees, disciplinary procedures may be applied. In the case of students, disciplinary action for academic and/or non-academic misconduct may be applied.

The University of Saskatchewan respects intellectual property and intellectual property laws, and will take appropriate steps to assure consistent application of legal requirements throughout the campus. Also, please note that in addition to potential liability, staff at the University Libraries, Archives, and Printing Services have a professional responsibility to respect copyright law and may refuse to copy or print something if it is thought to be an infringement of copyright law.

The Copyright Act, Copying Guidelines, and Fair Dealing Guidelines, along with the many licenses the university has signed, allow many uses of copyrighted works for educational purposes. To balance your needs and creators’ rights, make use of the legal rights available to you while staying compliant with any license limitations.

Please take a few moments to review the information contained within the pages of this website. You may also contact the Copyright Office for more information or to schedule an information session or workshop for you and your colleagues.

 

 

Note: The information obtained from or through this site does not constitute legal advice, but is provided as guidelines for using works for educational purposes.

Creative Commons LicenseAll information found on the University of Saskatchewan Copyright website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License unless otherwise noted.