As part of the research dissemination activity, the Royal Roads University copyright officer, Melanie Wrobel, shared some important information on copyright law. There were a few points that stood out to me through her presentation being both a graduate student and a member of large public corporation. My top 3 learnings are:
- Fair Deal Policy
- This policy helps you identify if you’re using the work you’ve obtained in a fair way. The 6 point diagram is a great tool that asks questions to help identify if you are abiding by a fair deal policy.
- Assessing Risk
- For example, posting on a Moodle discussion board is considered low risk, whereas posting your thesis online could be high risk for copyright issues if permission is not requested or given.
- Law of the Land
- Canada is part of the Bern Convention which means each of the countries involved are part of a basic copyright agreement. Law of the land means regardless of the origin of the document you are using, you must follow the copyright laws in your own country (Canada).
This presentation helped reinforce the need to CITE CITE CITE! It was enlightening to understand the difference between simply citing a source and identifying when you need to ask for permission from the copyright owner (using the RRU permission letter). Following the fair deal policy is as a good rule of thumb to help identify which path to take when using the work of someone else.