This guide and the resources included within are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license, except as otherwise noted. Questions and requests may be directed to Meaghan Shannon, Copyright Librarian at Queen's University: meaghan.shannon@queensu.ca.
The information on this page is intended for Queen's students and addresses the following:
- Best Practices for Students;
- Inputting Content into Generative AI Products (Student Edition);
- Copyright Considerations for the 4 Stages of Generative AI: Training, Input, Analysis, and Output;
- Copyright Considerations for Stage 1 of Generative AI: Training;
- Copyright Considerations for Stage 2 of Generative AI: Input;
- Copyright Considerations for Stage 3 of Generative AI: Analysis;
- Copyright Considerations for Stage 4 of Generative AI: Output; and
- Generative AI: Fair Dealing Scenarios.
The information on this page seeks to address the current relationship between copyright and artificial intelligence. In the absence of Canadian laws and regulations to address the development, implementation, and use of artificial intelligence tools and products, and while lawsuits between copyright owners and developers of artificial intelligence tools and products continue to be launched and decisions from the courts are pending, the popularity and interest in artificial intelligence tools and products continue to expand. As such, we find ourselves in a position where we need to consider best practices that we can adopt now and adapt when it's appropriate to do so. The information on this page considers the possible copyright-related legalities and legal issues that artificial intelligence tools and products present, suggests best practices for Queen's students to consider, and will be updated as necessary to reflect the introduction of any legislation and regulations as well as decisions from the courts.
Information about copyright and artificial intelligence for faculty, researchers, and staff is available in our guides:
Copyright Information for Faculty
Copyright Information for Researchers (coming soon)
Copyright Information for Staff (coming soon)
If you have any questions about copyright and artificial intelligence or need assistance, please contact Meaghan Shannon, Copyright Librarian: meaghan.shannon@queensu.ca.
The Copyright Act is intended to be technologically neutral, it is to apply to the use of copyright-protected content regardless of the technology that is involved in the use, but we will need the Canadian courts to interpret and apply copyright law in relation to the training and use of AI tools and products. In the meantime, the following are suggested best practices for Queen's students:
Complete Queen's University's Student Academic Success Services' Using Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools module.
Confirm with course instructors that the use of AI tools and products is permitted or even encouraged in their courses and for specific tasks and assignments.
If permitted/encouraged, disclose the use of AI tools and products via a disclaimer in your assignments.
For example:
Acknowledgement of the use of Artificial Intelligence: The ideas and the expression of them within my [assignment] are my own. I used [(link to AI tool/product) Name of AI tool/product, version #], an AI tool/product, to assist with identify specifically what the AI tool/product contributed to your assignment, ie your reason(s) for using the AI tool/product]. [Name of AI tool/product]'s role was limited to [identify what you prompted/inputted/instructed/asked the AI tool/product to do] so that I could [identify how you used/enhanced/modified/edited/adapted the AI-generated output].
The Terms of Use or Terms of Service for AI tools and products will require that you own the rights, or have licensed the rights, to any content that you submit, upload, input to the AI tool or product. As such, avoid inputting course materials, course readings, and works to which you do not own the copyright and have not licensed the rights. For more information, see our Inputting Content into AI Products (Student Edition) section below.
Be aware that AI tools and products are being incorporated into content platforms to prevent the use of content in association with AI tools and products that are external to the platforms. This is the case for library-licensed and subscription-based content and works - such content and works should not be extracted from library-licensed or subscription-based resources or platforms and inputted to AI tools and products that are outside of the resources and platforms.
Content and works that are within the public domain (the term of copyright protection has lapsed) and CC 0-licensed content and works can be inputted to AI tools and products. Be aware of potential biases due to the age of content and works that are within the public domain (the authors would have been deceased for at least 70 years) and self-published CC 0-licensed content and works that have not gone through peer review or editorial processes.
Open Access content and works are open for access, they're not necessarily open for any use - read the Terms of Use or Terms of Service on websites and note what uses applied Creative Commons licenses are permitting.
CC BY-ND and CC BY-NC-ND-licensed content and works should not be inputted to AI tools or products because the licenses do not permit adaptations or the creation of derivative works (ie AI-generated output).
CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA, and CC BY-NC-ND-licensed content and works should not be inputted to AI tools or products because the licenses do not permit commercial use - may AI tools and products are commercially owned and operated and many require paid subscriptions.
SS BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-ND, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA, and CC BY-ND-NC-licensed content and works should not be inputted to AI tools or products because the licenses require that the authors be acknowledged through attribution statements - AI tools and products have earned a reputation for failing to associate and acknowledge training and inputted content within AI-generated output.
Exercise caution when inputting your own work as it is highly unlikely that you will be able to retrieve your work or un-train AI tools or products if you change your mind later.
AI-generated output needs to be fact-checked and citations and references need to be incorporated as appropriate.
AI-generated output is not protected by copyright because Canadian copyright law only confers rights upon persons. As such, AI-generated output would not constitute academic work completed or produced by students and students would not own the rights to AI-generated output.
If you have any questions about copyright and artificial intelligence or need assistance, please contact Meaghan Shannon, Copyright Librarian: meaghan.shannon@queensu.ca.
For more information, please see our Categories of Content page.
If you have questions about inputting content into AI tools and products or need assistance, please contact Meaghan Shannon, Copyright Librarian: meaghan.shannon@queensu.ca.
The following pages within this guide provide the background information that is relevant to the copyright considerations that are detailed in the sections below: our Overview of Copyright page and our Overview of the Fair Dealing Exception page.
If we apply what we know about Canadian copyright law, including fair dealing, and decisions from Canadian courts, the following are copyright considerations for the four stages of generative AI:
The sections below seek to address each of the copyright considerations for each of the four stages of generative AI.
