The copyright officer at Royal Roads University (RRU), Melanie Wrobel, answered questions in a Blackboard Collaborate recording, and this blog post will discuss some of the main points.
An RRU copyright officer reviews course readings to ensure that they are in compliance with the copyright act and tests readings links to ensure they work and go to the appropriate databases.
Copyright law depends on the country you’re in. In Canada, works do not need a copyright statement as copyright is the default, and copyright duration is usually the life of the author plus 50 years.
Copyright fair use, or fair dealing as it’s called in Canadian copyright law, allows exceptions to copyright law. If you are using a copyright-protected work for research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, or parody, your use of the copyrighted work may quality for fair dealing. Use of the copyright-protected work must also be considered fair as per a set of criteria, such as the purpose, character, and amount of the dealing.
Guidelines for fair dealing have a number of allowances including up to 10% of a copyright-protected work or one chapter from a book. It’s suggested that if in doubt permission should be requested.
Since databases might charge for thesis access, permission will need to be obtained before using any copyright-protected content prior to publication of a thesis.
RRU thesis-related links with copyright information:
- Master’s Thesis Process
- Copyright Information for Thesis Publication
- Master of Arts in Learning and Technology Thesis Handbook
Hi Jason,
Do you think you will come across any points in your research where you will need to seek out and request a copyright license? I found this presentation interesting, especially in regards to the “10%” rule. Do you think you would prefer to paraphrase and use less content from a piece to avoid taking the route of requesting a license?
Hello Katie and Jason,
With regard to Katie’s question, I think that would be a good opportunity to have a conversation with the Thesis Advisor. Now, remember that RRU might have some licenses and/or permits already obtained for the research works of its graduates… chances are the one you need is among those.
Cheers!
HI Katie,
Good questions. Unless I thought requesting permission to use something would be fairly painless I’d probably only use content that I needed to request permission to use if I though it made a major contribution to my work. Otherwise, perhaps I could find similar content that was appropriately CC licensed or public domain, or I could create the content myself (e.g., photos or other media).