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About Canadian Copyright
Copyright Matters!
Copyright Matters! Some Key Questions and Answers for Teachers is a user-friendly outline of basic copyright rules in Canada. It was written by lawyer Wanda Noel and consultant Gerald Breau and published by the Council of Ministers of Education Canada, the Canadian School Boards Association and the Canadian Teachers' Federation. It includes valuable information on print, video, audio, television, software and music copyright and specifically addresses issues of concern to teachers and schools. Click her to access Copyright Matters as a PDF document.
Feature Film Public Performance Licenses
Feature films, documentary or educational VHS videos and DVDs that have been borrowed from another library, a retail outlet or that you bring from home are not licensed within the School District. These videos and DVDs are for Home Use Only and it is illegal to show them in public without a licence. BUT, School District No. 23 has purchased two District wide institutional Feature Film Public Performance Licences that allows thousands of feature film titles to be shown in the our schools for educational purposes without any further payment.
Any legal copy of a feature film that is covered by these licences can be shown in our schools, including videos and DVDs from your local video store and from home (as long as they are legal copies, not duplicates or dubbed copies). Movies from all the major Hollywood studios, as well as many foreign films and independent productions, are included in the licences. The licenses are from the following agencies:
Audio Ciné Films Audio Ciné Films Inc. (ACF) is Canada's non-theatrical distributor and public performance licensing agent for Canadian, American and foreign feature film producers such as Universal Studios, Alliance-Atlantis, Paramount Pictures, MGM Studios, Touchstone Pictures, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, United Artists, FineLine Features, Orion Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, New Line Cinema, Behaviour, Miramax Films, Odeon, Sony Classics, Paramount Classics, Blackwatch Releasing and Artisan Entertainment, among others. It distributes films in 16MM, 35MM, videocassette and DVD.
Criterion Pictures Criterion Pictures is the non-theatrical distributor of feature films for many of Hollywood's major motion picture studios. It offer movies to the non-theatrical market on four primary mediums: 35mm, 16mm, VHS and DVD. Criterion Pictures administers and manages both educational (Visual Education Centre) and entertainment audiovisual works including motion pictures distributed by, among many others, Astral Films (TVA), Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Fox Searchlight, Lions Gate Films, Lucas Films, Norstar Releasing Inc.,Tri-Star Pictures, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Revolution Studios and Savoy Pictures. It grants licences for the use of these protected
works.
Useful Sites about Canadian Copyright
Faircopy - A resource for Canadians, especially teachers, students, and creators. faircopyright.ca
Canadian Collective and Performing Rights Societies
The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (formerly CanCopy)
WHAT YOU CAN COPY:
Under the Pan-Canadian Elementary & Secondary School licence, permission to copy is subject to certain limits.
Volume – No copying shall exceed 10% of a published work or the following, whichever is greater:
- an entire chapter which is 20% or less of a book
- an entire newspaper article or page
- an entire single short story, play, poem, essay or article from a book or periodical issue containing other works
- an entire entry from an encyclopedia, dictionary, annotated bibliography or similar reference work
- an entire reproduction of an artistic work from a book or periodical issue containing other works
Excluded Works – The licence does not cover:
- print music
- works intended to be used and replaced such as workbooks, activity books, workcards, assignment sheets, tests, and examination papers
- works on the Exclusions List and works outside countries listed in the Exclusions List
- originals of artistic works including photographs or prints
- instructional manuals and teachers’ guides
- unpublished works
- works containing a notice expressly prohibiting copying under license with a Reproduction Rights Organization Crown and provincial publications with the exception of the province of Quebec
- software manuals and commercial newsletters
- slides of artistic work where the slide is commercially available from a living artist
Number of copies
The licence authorizes making one copy for each student in a class and two for each teacher. It also authorizes the institution to make copies for library and administrative purposes, including communications to parents.
Assembly of copies
Copies must not be bound or otherwise assembled in a substantially permanent manner into coursepacks or anthologies (contact Access Copyright if this is unclear).
This restriction applies whether or not the copies are intermixed with other types of materials, such as teacher-generated information.
Public domain
Some copying will not infringe copyright, such as copying of public domain works. Copyright protection does not last forever. Works go into what is called the “public domain” 50 years after the death of the author and may be copied freely. Please note, though, copyright protection extends to each individual, specific version of a work.
New translations, adaptations or editions of works otherwise in the public domain may be protected as new, original works, therefore whether or not a work is in the public domain must be determined on a case-by-case basis.
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