Important New Copyright Procedures for all Teaching Staff and Faculty

Nov 01, 2012

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
For winter term 2013 (starting January 2013), all teaching staff and faculty will be asked to provide 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.

Changes in Fall 2013
We understand that the addition of these forms may create some addition 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 for September 2013.  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

Sincerely,

Brett Fairbairn, Provost and Vice-President Academic
Greg Fowler, Acting Vice-President, Finance and Resources