Copyright Information for Students

The information on this page is intended for Queen's students and addresses the following: 

- What Copyright is and How it Works;

- Student Works; 

- Student-Produced Media; 

- Creative Commons Licenses; and 

- The Differences between Submitting Student Works and Publishing Student Works. 

Queen's students are both the authors and copyright owners of the content and works that they create and produce. As such, Queen's students retain the rights (economic and moral rights) to the content and works that they create and produce. These rights are exercised and enforced by Queen's students at their discretion. The information on this page should be regarded as recommendations and best practices which Queen's students may elect to adopt. 

Queen's students who have questions, concerns, need assistance, or would like a consultation, are welcome to contact Meaghan Shannon, Copyright Librarian: meaghan.shannon@queensu.ca. 

Copyright is a legal mechanism that grants economic and moral rights to authors of works while also granting rights to users of copyright-protected works. The use of copyright-protected works at Queen's University is informed by the Canadian Copyright Act, Canadian case law (decisions from Canadian courts), the Copyright Compliance and Administration Policy, including Appendix A: Fair Dealing Requirements for Educational Copying, and various license agreements that the university has entered into with copyright owners and representative organizations. 

Copyright protects artistic, dramatic, literary, and musical works as well as performers' performances, sound recordings, and communication signals. This encompasses a wide range of content, from books, articles, posters and artwork, textbooks and manuals, figures and maps, songs and musical scores, films and documentaries, to software, databases, and websites. In order for a work to be protected by copyright, it must be original and it must be fixed in a format (ie a written article or a recorded song). Copyright protection will not apply to facts or ideas but it will apply to the expression of them. 

Copyright grants economic and moral rights to authors of works. The economic rights allow authors and copyright owners to exploit the economic value and potential of their works by controlling or restricting whether their works are reproduced, distributed, communicated (ie shared online, transmitted via email, or broadcast via telecommunication channels), performed, exhibited, or translated/adapted. Authors and copyright owners also have the right to authorize any individual to exercise any of their economic rights on their behalf - this is why permission must be obtained from an author or copyright owner if the use of a work is not permitted in accordance with an exception in the Copyright Act, including fair dealing, or an existing license agreement. The exceptions in the Copyright Act are intended to balance an author's or copyright owner's economic rights and copyright interests with the public's interest in using works for specific purposes under specific conditions. It is important to note that authors can transfer their economic rights to other individuals or entities (ie publishers) which is why authors and copyright owners can be either the same or different individuals or entities. 

Moral rights are also conferred upon authors of works. The moral rights allow authors to protect the integrity of their work, their reputations in association with their work, and their entitlement to be acknowledged or remain anonymous whenever their work is used. It is important to note that authors can waive their moral rights but the moral rights cannot be transferred to other individuals or entities. Even if the economic rights to a work have been transferred, the moral rights will remain with the author of that work if they have not been waived. 

The following graphics illustrate what copyright is and how it works.

If you have any copyright-related questions or concerns, please contact the Copyright Advisory Office: qcopy@queensu.ca.

Each student retains the rights (economic and moral) to the works that they create. Examples of student works include academic works such as assignments, reports, essays, and slide decks for presentations. Student works may include text, images, links, embedded media, etc., but it's important to note that incorporating such content into student works does not result in the rights to such content being transferred to students; the rights to such content will remain with each piece of content's copyright owner. As such, appropriate exceptions in the Copyright Act (the Fair Dealing Exception and the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception) and applicable licenses and terms of use/service should be adhered to. *Please note that it is important for both copyright-related reasons and academic purposes to acknowledge the authors and sources of content, by way of attribution statements, credit lines, citations, and references, whenever such content is incorporated into student works.* For more information about incorporating content into student works, please see our Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception page. For information about incorporating content into theses and dissertations, please see our Theses & Dissertations page. 

A note regarding Course Content Sharing Sites, such as Course Hero and StuDocU: as a student retains the rights to the work that they create, they can upload their work to course content sharing sites at their discretion and if their work does not contain content from any other sources regardless of whether those sources are cited and referenced. Course content sharing sites require that a student owns the rights to the work that they upload and they will not own the rights to the content that they incorporated into their work. Students are advised that by uploading their work to course content sharing sites, they are transferring their economic rights to the sites and users and they are waiving their moral rights as the sites and users are not obligated to acknowledge students as the authors of their work that they uploaded. As such, and because these sites encourage and facilitate plagiarism, students are discouraged from using these sites and uploading anything to them. 

A note regarding AI Tools: as a student retains the rights to the work that they create, they can input/submit their work to AI tools at their discretion and if their work does not contain content from any other sources regardless of whether those sources are cited and referenced. AI tools require that a student owns the rights to the work that they input/submit and they will not own the rights to the content that their incorporated into their work. Students are advised that by inputting/submitting their work to AI tools, they are waiving their economic rights and their moral rights as the tools and users will not be able to associate students as the authors of their work that they inputted/submitted. As such, students should exercise caution when using AI tools and inputting/submitting anything to them. 

When a student submits their work to a course instructor, they do so for the purpose of having their work evaluated by that course instructor so that grades can be assigned and feedback can be provided. If a student is to prepare a presentation, seminar, etc., within a course, the assignment instructions should indicate that their presentation/seminar materials (handouts, postings, slides, etc.) will be distributed to other students in the classroom and/or communicated to other students in the course via the course site or email. If a student's work is exemplary or exceptional and a course instructor would like to share the student's work with other students in the class, with students in a future offering of the course, with colleagues, or to showcase the work of the student so as to promote the course or program, written permission from the student will need to be obtained - this is often done via an email exchange so that both the student's and the course instructor's responses can be kept for their records. 

When it comes to other students' work, students can use other students' work as follows: 

Private Study and Research Purposes: personal use is permitted in accordance with Fair Dealing. 

Academic Works: content from other students' works can be incorporated into academic works *if cited and referenced*. Please note that the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception will not apply if the works have not been published. 

Publish/Republish within Theses and Dissertations: permission from the student will be required in order to publish or republish their work, or content from their work, within theses and dissertations. For more information, please see our Theses & Dissertations page. 

Course Content Sharing Sites: other students' work, and content from their work, should not be uploaded to Course Content Sharing Sites. 

AI Tools: other students' work, and content from their work, should not be inputted/submitted to AI tools. 

Students are welcome to contact the Copyright Advisory Office if they have any copyright-related questions or concerns: qcopy@queensu.ca.

Each student retains the rights (economic and moral) to the works that they create. Examples of student works include academic works such as assignments, reports, essays, slide decks for presentations, and any media that students produce. This student-produced media may include text, images, links, embedded media, etc., but it's important to note that including such content into student-produced media does not result in the rights to such content being transferred to students; the rights to such content will remain with each piece of content's copyright owner. As such, appropriate exceptions in the Copyright Act (the Fair Dealing Exception and the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception) and applicable licenses and terms of use/service should be adhered to. Please see the sections below for information about specific types of media and how to appropriately include content within them. *Please note that it is important for both copyright-related reasons and academic purposes to acknowledge the authors and sources of content, by way of attribution statements, credit lines, citations, and references, whenever such content is included within student-produced media.* 

When a student submits their work, including student-produced media, to a course instructor, they do so for the purpose of having their work evaluated by that course instructor so that grades can be assigned and feedback can be provided. If a student is to prepare a presentation, seminar, etc., within a course, the assignment instructions should indicate that their presentation/seminar materials (handouts, postings, slides, and any student-produced media) will be distributed to other students in the classroom and/or communicated to other students in the class via the course site or email. If a student's work, including student-produced media, is exemplary or exceptional and a course instructor would like to share the student's work with other students in the class, with students in a future offering of the course, with colleagues, or to showcase the work of the student so as to promote the course or program, written permission from the student will need to be obtained - this is often done via an email exchange so that both the student's and the course instructor's responses can be kept for their records. 

When it comes to other students' work, students can incorporate other students' work into student-produced media *if cited and referenced* and if the student-produced media is not published (ie made available to the public via YouTube or posted/uploaded/shared to a social media platform). Please note that the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception will not apply if the other student's work has not been published.  

Students are welcome to contact the Copyright Advisory Office if they have any copyright-related questions or concerns: qcopy@queensu.ca. 

Creative Commons-licensed content and works are protected by copyright. Authors of Creative Commons-licensed content and works have elected to employ Creative Commons licenses to pre-authorize the use of their copyright-protected content and works by permitting the exercising of some or all of their economic rights and retaining their moral right of attribution. There are 7 Creative Commons licenses that permit specific uses of content and works and range from least to most restrictive. 

The Creative Commons Licenses

CC 0: both moral and economic rights are waived. The content or work can be used without any restrictions but *the attribution right should be respected for academic purposes.* 

CC BY: economic rights are waived, the content or work can be used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. *Respecting the attribution right is the only requirement.* 

CC BY-SA: economic rights are waived, the content or work can be used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. *Respecting the attribution right is required* and any new content or work must be shared alike (must be made available through the use of a CC BY-SA license). 

CC BY-ND: economic rights are waived, the content or work can be used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes but adaptations and the creation of derivative works are not permitted (content or work must be used as is). *Respecting the attribution right is required.* 

CC BY-NC: economic rights are waived, the content or work can be used for non-commercial purposes only (commercial use requires authorization or permission from the copyright owner). *Respecting the attribution right is required.* 

CC BY-NC-SA: economic rights are waived, the content or work can be used for non-commercial purposes only (commercial use requires authorization or permission from the copyright owner). *Respecting the attribution right is required* and any new content or work must be shared alike (must be made available through the use of a CC BY-NC-SA license). 

CC BY-NC-ND: economic rights are waived, the content or work can be used for non-commercial purposes only (commercial use requires authorization or permission from the copyright owner) but adaptations and the creation of derivative works are not permitted (content must be used as is). *Respecting the attribution right is required.* 

Private Study and Research Purposes: all 7 Creative Commons licenses permit personal use. 

Academic Works: 5 of 7 Creative Commons licenses permit incorporating audio recordings into academic works but *citing and referencing is required*. Avoid Creative Commons licenses that include "-ND" in the license code or request permission. All 7 Creative Commons licenses permit performance/streaming during presentations in the classroom and during an online class. 5 of 7 Creative Commons licenses permit performance/streaming during a recorded online class. Avoid Creative Commons licenses that include "-ND" in the license code or request permission. 

Republish within Theses and Dissertations: 3 of 7 Creative Commons licenses permit republication without permission but *citing and referencing is required*. Avoid Creative Commons licenses that include "-ND" and "-NC" in the license code or request permission. For more information, please see our Theses & Dissertations page. 

Course Content Sharing Sites: CC 0 licensed content and works can be uploaded to Course Content Sharing Sites. Content and works licensed under the remaining 6 Creative Commons licenses should not be uploaded to Course Content Sharing Sites. 

AI Tools: CC 0 licensed content and works can be inputted/submitted to AI tools. Content and works licensed under the remaining 6 Creative Commons licenses should not be inputted/submitted to AI tools. 

Employing a Creative Commons License 

When you have selected the Creative Commons license that you would like to employ to pre-authorize the use of your copyright-protected faculty-created content or faculty-produced media by permitting the exercising of some or all of your economic rights and retaining your moral right of attribution, the following should be displayed on your copyright-protected content or work: 

Example, if the copyright-protected faculty-created content or faculty-produced media does not include any incorporated content: 

(c) [year], Prepared by [name of faculty member], Professor, Queen's University [email address] for use in [course, term]. 

Example, if the copyright-protected faculty-created content or faculty-produced media does include incorporated content:  

(c) [year], Prepared by [name​ of faculty member], Professor, Queen's University [email address] for use in [course, term]. ​​​​​​

If you have questions about Creative Commons licenses, please contact the Copyright Advisory Office for assistance: qcopy@queensu.ca. 

The graphic below provides an overview of the differences between submitting student works and publishing student works. 

Submitting Student Works 

Fair dealing is an exception in the Copyright Act that permits the use of copyright-protected works for specific purposes without authorization or permission from the author or copyright owner. Sections 29, 29.1, and 29.2 of the Copyright Act state that fair dealing for the purpose of research, private study, education, parody or satire, criticism or review, or news reporting does not infringe copyright. Whenever copyright-protected works are used, authors and the content ow works must be acknowledged, by way of credit lines (when appropriate), citations, and references, for academic purposes and in order to respect the moral right of attribution. 

When you're conducting research to produce your academic works, you will likely be reproducing short excerpts from copyright-protected works: a chapter from a book, an article from a journal, an image/diagram/figure/map, etc. from a reference work, etc. The reproduction right is one of the economic rights that are conferred upon authors of works and authorization or permission is required in order to exercise the reproduction right on an author's behalf. As mentioned above, fair dealing is an exception in the Copyright Act, it is an exception to requesting authorization or permission from an author to reproduce short excerpts from their work if you purpose for doing so is one of the eight purposes that constitute fair dealing. Conducting research is one of those eight purposes, as are studying privately, reviewing works, and critiquing works. When you are conducting research to produce your academic works, you are operating within the scope of fair dealing. 

Queen's University's Fair Dealing Requirements (Appendix A of the Copyright Compliance and Administration Policy) define a (a single) 'short excerpt' as follows: 

a) a page range of up to 10% of a copyright-protected work; 

b) one chapter from a book; 

c) a single article from a periodical; 

d) an entire artistic work; 

e) an entire newspaper article or page; 

f) an entire single poem or musical work from a copyright-protected material or work that contains other poems or musical works; and 

g) an entire entry from a reference work, such as an encyclopedia. 

When collecting works, and short excerpts from them, in order to conduct research to produce your academic works, you will likely encounter this definition of a (a single) 'short excerpt'. For example, if you request scans from works or interlibrary loans through Queen's University Library, library staff here and at universities across Canada are required to adhere to the same or similar definition of a (a single) 'short excerpt'. 

When you're submitting your academic works for evaluation by course instructors, you will have reproduced short excerpts from copyright-protected works and you will be distributing those reproduced short excerpts within your academic works to your course instructors. The distribution right is another of the economic rights that are conferred upon authors of works and authorization or permission is required in order to exercise the distribution right on an author's behalf. Again, as mentioned above, fair dealing is an exception in the Copyright Act, it is an exception to requesting authorization or permission from an author to distribute short excerpts from their work if your purpose for doing so is one of the eight purposes that constitute fair dealing. Submitting your academic works for evaluation by course instructors would be regarded as the purpose of education because your academic works will be evaluated by your course instructors who will also be providing you with feedback. The evaluation of your academic works involves the studying, reviewing, and critiquing of your academic work by your course instructors. As education, private study, criticism, and review are four of the eight purposes that constitute fair dealing, you are operating within the scope of fair dealing when you submit your academic works for evaluation. 

Publishing Student Works 

If we refer back to sections 29, 29.1, and 29.2 of the Copyright Act, we'll recall that fair dealing for the purpose of research, private study, education, parody or satire, criticism or review, or news reporting does not infringe copyright. Submitting your academic works for evaluation by course instructors was within the scope of fair dealing because copyright-protected works were being used for the purpose of research, private study, education, criticism, or review. By shifting from submission for evaluation to publication, you will be exiting the scope of fair dealing because publication is not one of the eight purposes listed in the Copyright Act. Publication of your academic works and the republication of any incorporated works, or short excerpts from them, will be outside of the scope of fair dealing. Authorization or permission from copyright owners will need to be obtained in order to reproduce and republish their works, or short excerpts from them, that will be incorporated within your published academic works. 

Publishers will require that you sign a publishing agreement whereby you will transfer some of your economic rights (reproduction, distribution, adaptation/translation, communication) to them so that they can produce and distribute print and/or digital copies of your academic works for sale. The moral rights (integrity, association, and attribution) cannot be transferred to a publisher but they can be waived by an author. Academic authors are encouraged to retain their moral right of attribution so that they are acknowledged whenever their academic works are used by others.

For more information, please visit Queen's University Library's Scholarly Publishing page. 

For more information about Theses and Dissertations (conducting research and submission for review, depositing in QSpace, and future commercial publications), please see our Theses and Dissertations page. 

Queen's students who have questions or concerns, need assistance, or would like a consultation, are welcome to contact Meaghan Shannon, Copyright Librarian: meaghan.shannon@queensu.ca.