Copyright Information for Students

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

- What the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception is and How it Works, and 

- Applying the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception to Students' Academic Works. 

If you have any questions about the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception or need assistance, please contact the Copyright Advisory Office: qcopy@queensu.ca. 

In addition to the Fair Dealing Exception, the Copyright Act includes the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception which permits the use of existing copyright-protected works when new works are prepared and created for non-commercial purposes. Students' academic works that are prepared and created for courses that students are enrolled in, such as assignments, reports, essays, and presentations, are new works that are prepared and created for non-commercial purposes. Section 29.21 of the Copyright Act states that it is not an infringement of copyright for an individual to use an existing work in the creation of a new work in which copyright subsists and for the individual to use the new work or authorize an intermediary to disseminate it, if the following five conditions are met: 

1. The use or dissemination of the new work must be done solely for non-commercial purposes; 

2. *The source and author(s) of the existing work must be mentioned within the new work*; 

3.  The existing work must have been published or otherwise made available to the public;

4. The existing work must be legitimate and must not infringe copyright; and 

5. The use or dissemination of the new work must not have a substantial adverse effect, financial or otherwise, on the exploitation or potential exploitation of the existing work or on the existing or potential market for the existing work, including that the new work is not and will not be a substitute for the existing work.  

Making use of the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception will involve considering the five conditions as follows: 

1. The use or dissemination of the new work must be done solely for non-commercial purposes (the preparation and creation of academic work that is submitted to course instructors for evaluation and/or shared with other students in the course through presentations, discussions, or seminars will constitute use or dissemination for non-commercial purposes. Disseminating academic work to other students via course content sharing sites like Course Hero and StuDocU will not constitute dissemination for non-commercial purposes). 

2. *The source and author(s) of the existing work must be mentioned within the new work* (include citations and references for text and credit lines for images and figures within your academic work. Credits should appear at the end of videos and can be read aloud at the end of audio recordings).

3. The existing work must have been published or otherwise made available to the public (exercise caution when considering archival materials like diary entries and letters that were not published by the authors; social media content that is private or has been shared with limited groups of subscribers or followers; and online content that is only available through subscriptions, paywalls, or the creation of accounts and payment of fees).  

4. The existing work must be legitimate and must not infringe copyright (use originals rather than copies, consult verified accounts and trusted websites, consider the validity of the usernames of those who posted or uploaded the content, and avoid content that is accompanied by disclaimers that state 'no copyright infringement intended'). 

5. The use or dissemination of the new work must not have a substantial adverse effect, financial or otherwise, on the exploitation or potential exploitation of the existing work or on the existing or potential market for the existing work, including that the new work is not and will not be a substitute for the existing work (the new work cannot compete with or act as a substitute for the existing work - this shouldn't present any issues for academic work that is submitted to course instructors for evaluation and/or shared with other students in the course through presentations, discussions, or seminars. Avoid inputting or submitting the existing work or your new work that contains existing work(s) into AI products as doing so will compromise your ability to meet this condition - AI products are commercial products, not non-commercial products; the conversion of the existing work from its original format into training data can result in substantial adverse effects on the existing work; and generated output can result in substantial adverse effects on the existing work and act as a substitute for the existing work). 

The graphic below is intended to illustrate how the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception works.

If you have any questions about the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception or need assistance, please contact the Copyright Advisory Office: qcopy@queensu.ca. 

The Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception was added as section 29.21 to the Copyright Act in 2012. At the time, it was referred to as 'the mashup exception' because it was intended to address and facilitate creative expressions that involved mixing, combining, compiling, and sharing works in the online environment. Many of the academic works that students prepare and create can be regarded as mashups of sorts. When applying the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception to students' academic works, a student may: 

-  incorporate text, images, figures, graphs, etc. within assignments, reports, and essays (*incorporated text should be cited with sources listed in references and credit lines should accompany images, figures, and graphs with sources listed in references*); 

- incorporate text, images, figures, graphs, etc. within presentations (*incorporated text should be cited on applicable slides with sources listed on a 'references' slide at the end of the deck and credit lines should accompany images, figures, and graphs with sources listed on a 'references' slide at the end of the deck*); 

- incorporate text, images, figures, graphs, and media like video and audio clips within videos (*incorporated content should be cited when it appears in the video and sources should be listed in references as credits at the end of the video*); and 

- incorporate text read aloud and audio clips within audio recordings (*references for incorporated content should be read aloud as credits at the end of the audio recording*). 

Please note that the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception cannot be applied to theses or dissertations. Section 29.21 of the Copyright Act states that the individual uses an existing work in the creation of a new work can "do anything that the owner of the copyright in the existing work has the sole right to do other than to authorize anything". Completed theses and dissertations are deposited into QSpace, Queen's University's open online repository, and students will select and employ Creative Commons licenses in order to authorize the use of their theses and dissertations. As students need to retain the right to authorize the use of their theses and dissertations, they should not rely on the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception when incorporating content into their theses and dissertations. For more information, please see our Theses & Dissertations page. 

The following safeguards should be implemented when applying the Non-Commercial User-Generated Content Exception so as to comply with the five conditions detailed within section 29.21 of the Copyright Act and outlined in the section above: 

- this exception is best applied when using content from print sources, physical formats, and publicly accessible online content; 

- this exception will not apply to content from library-licensed databases, Creative Commons-licensed content, or content from subscription-based websites, platforms, and services because the license agreements and terms of use or service that are in place will dictate whether and how content from these sources can be used; 

- *always acknowledge the sources and authors of content incorporated into academic works by citing, referencing, and including credit lines and credits as appropriate*; 

- make use of published, legitimate, and non-infringing content by using originals rather than copies or copies of copies of content/works and consulting verified accounts and trusted websites; and

- keep in mind that this exception requires that the new work be used for non-commercial purposes only, that the new work not compete with the existing content/work(s), and that the new work not act as a substitute for the existing content/work(s).  

A note regarding Course Content Sharing Sites like Course Hero and StuDocU: avoid uploading the existing content/work(s) or your academic works to course content sharing sites because these sites are commercial products and uploaded copies can result in substantial adverse effects on the existing content/work(s).

A note regarding AI tools: avoid inputting/submitting existing content/work(s) or your academic works to AI tools because these tools are commercial products; the conversion of the existing content/work(s) into training data can result in substantial adverse effects on the existing content/work(s); and generated output can result in substantial adverse effects on the existing content/work(s) and will act as a substitute for the existing content/work(s). 

If you have any questions about the Non-Commercial Use-Generated Content Exception or need assistance, please contact the Copyright Advisory Office: qcopy@queensu.ca.