Copyright Corner (May, 2018)

8 / ULFA News /May-June 2018 Copyright Website Migration With a lot of help from Library instructional design and systems staff, the Copyright website has migrated to a new platform. The website address remains the same as before, however: www.uleth.ca/copyright. A new section called Learn offers the first three tutorials in a planned series that will address a variety of copyright issues relevant to U of L instructors, researchers and students. The new section also hosts the slides and handouts of previous Library Brown Bag sessions on copyright topics such as “Classroom teaching and copyright,” and “Options for meeting mandated Open Access.” Fair Dealing Week This year the international celebration of Fair Dealing Week occurred February 26 to March 2, 2018, once again providing an occasion to acknowledge the key role played by fair dealing in U of L teaching, learning and research. You may recall that in a landmark 2004 case known as CCH v LSUC, the Supreme Court of Canada said the Copyright Act’s exceptions to infringement may be “more properly understood as users’ rights,” chief among which is “fair dealing.” In fact, the Court went much further by stating that: The fair dealing exception under s. 29 is open to those who can show that their dealings with a copyrighted work were for the purpose of research or private study. “Research” must be given a large and liberal interpretation in order to ensure that users’ rights are not unduly constrained. The Library’s Research Services Committee has reached out to several U of L faculty to find out how fair dealing benefits their students and their own personal teaching and research practices. When they become available, the results will be shared in the Fair Dealing Week section of the U of L Copyright website. You may also want to check out fair dealing Canada, a national effort to share scholarly fair dealing stories. Copyright Corner ULFA News /May-June 2018 / 9 Screening Films in Classroom and Extra-Curricular Settings In the past couple of months I’ve received several inquiries about copyright and films, two of which I’ll share here, as they may be of interest to members. Q: Is it ok to show my class a film that is streamed from my Netflix account or a film I purchased from iTunes? A: Although you may have access to a lawful source or copy of the film, have a look at the fine print of the applicable end-user license agreement you accepted. Most likely it will stipulate that the purchased or subscribed content may be used only for your personal use. Since screening a film in class (or, by extension, in an online classroom setting such as Moodle) constitutes a “public performance,” in general, classroom use of a film covered by such an agreement will contravene the license terms. It is rumoured that Netflix will occasionally allow classroom use if they are the only source, but even if the rumour is true, such permission must be sought on a case-by-case basis. If you would like help in trying to obtain permission for a classroom screening of a film covered by a personal-use-only license, feel free to contact me. (This question is now covered by a Copyright FAQ.) Q: Are permissions required to show films for student clubs? (Of possible interest to members who are called upon to advise student clubs or groups.) A: Use of films by student clubs is not covered by the Copyright Act provision for public performance of films in classroom settings. However, since students are among the “Authorized Users” of the Library’s streaming video services such as Kanopy, Films on Demand, NFB, and Curio, in general, films may be streamed from these services for student events held on campus as long as the audience consists of U of L students and no fees are charged. If a student club wishes to screen a film that is not available via the Library’s subscription streaming services, they must have access to a lawful copy of the film and must obtain public performance rights for the screening. Two non-theatrical screening rights collectives they may wish to consider are Audio Cine Films and Criterion Pictures. Note, however, that a single-presentation nontheatrical screening license can cost in the neighbourhood of $200- 300 or more. (This question, too, is now covered by a Copyright FAQ.) As always, if you have copyright questions or would like advice or information on copyright matters in your teaching, research or other U of L work, please feel free to contact me. E-mail: copyright@uleth.ca Phone: 403-332-4472 Website: www.uleth.ca/copyright Rumi Graham, University Copyright Adviso