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 faculty and addresses the following:
- What Copyright is and How it Works,
- Faculty-Created Content,
- Faculty-Produced Media, and
- Creative Commons Licenses.
Queen's faculty are both the authors and copyright owners of the content and works that they create and produce. As such, Queen's faculty 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 faculty at their discretion. The information on this page should be regarded as recommendations and best practices which Queen's faculty may elect to adopt.
Queen's faculty who have questions or concerns, need assistance, or would like a consultation, please 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. Authors' economic and moral rights are detailed in sections 3 and 14 of the Canadian Copyright Act. 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 recorded song). Copyright protection will not apply to facts or ideas but it will apply to the expression of them.
Copyright grants economic rights 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 through 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.
Upon creation, a work is automatically protected by copyright and the term of copyright protection generally lasts for the duration of the author's lifetime and for 70 years after the author's death. The term of copyright protection can vary for certain categories of works, such as government works that are protected by Crown copyright, anonymous works, unpublished works, and non-dramatic cinematographic works.
Once the term of copyright protection lapses, a work is no longer protected by copyright and it is considered to be within the scope of the public domain. The 'public domain' refers to a category of works for which the term of copyright protection has lapsed. Works that are within the public domain can be used without restrictions or authorization/permission from the author or copyright owner. Please note that while works in the public domain are no longer protected by copyright, the author and work should still be acknowledged, by way of an attribution statement, citation, credit line, or other form of acknowledgement, when the work is used for academic purposes.
The following graphics illustrate what copyright is and how it works.
For more information about what copyright is and how it works, please see our Overview of Copyright page.
If you have questions or concerns about anything copyright-related, please contact the Copyright Advisory Office for assistance: qcopy@queensu.ca.
The content that faculty create for the facilitation of their courses is protected by copyright and Queen's faculty retain the rights (economic and moral) to the content that they create. Examples of this content include: course outlines, handouts, postings, assignment templates, slides, lecture notes, and any media that faculty produce. This faculty-created content may include text, images, links, embedded media, etc. but it's important to note that incorporating such content into faculty-created content does not result in the rights to such content being transferred to faculty; 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 Requirements for Educational Copying (Appendix A of Queen's University's Copyright Compliance and Administration Policy), and applicable licenses and terms of use/service should be adhered to. Please see the information below or consult our Copyright in the Classroom, Copyright in Course Sites, and/or Categories of Content pages for information about specific types of content and how to appropriately incorporate them into faculty-created content. *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, citations, or credit lines, whenever such content is incorporated into faculty-created content.*
Faculty-created content can be distributed and displayed to students in the classroom and communicated to students via a course site, during an online class, and during a recorded lecture at the faculty member's discretion.
As Queen's faculty retain the rights (economic and moral) to the content that they create, it is recommended that faculty consider making the following information visible on or included within their faculty-created content:
(c) [year], Prepared by [name of faculty member], Professor, Queen's University [email address] for use in [course, term].
A Creative Commons license could be applied at the faculty member's discretion, please see the Creative Commons Licenses section below (a Creative Commons license would apply only to the faculty-created content, not to any incorporated content), or the line above could be accompanied by a statement addressing the use of the faculty-created content within the course and/or program as well as the reproduction, distribution, and communication of the faculty-created content online and outside of the course and/or program.
Example: This slide deck is protected by copyright and was prepared for use within [course, term] by students enrolled in the course. The reproduction, distribution, and communication of this slide deck online and outside of [course, term] is not permitted without permission from [name of faculty member], Professor, Queen's University [email address].
The Copyright Advisory Office offers a Takedown Notice service for Queen's faculty who have found their faculty-created content on course content sharing sites like Course Her and StuDocU and would like their faculty-created content removed from such sites. For information about this service, please see our page linked above or contact the Copyright Services Office for assistance: qcopy@queensu.ca.
The content that faculty create for the facilitation of their courses is protected by copyright and Queen's faculty retain the rights (economic and moral) to the content that they create. Examples of this content include: course outlines, handouts, postings, assignment templates, slides, lecture notes, and any media that faculty produce. This faculty-produced media may include text, images, links, embedded media, etc. but it's important to note that incorporating such content into faculty-produced media does not result in the rights to such content being transferred to faculty; 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 Requirements for Educational Copying (Appendix A of Queen's University's Copyright Compliance and Administration Policy), and applicable licenses and terms of use/service should be adhered to. Please see our Media Production page for information about specific types of media and how to appropriately incorporate content into 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, citations, or credit lines, whenever such content is incorporated into faculty-produced media.*
Faculty-produced media can be performed/streamed for students in the classroom and communicated to students via a course site, during an online class, and during a recorded lecture at the faculty member's discretion.
As Queen's faculty retain the rights (economic and moral) to the content that they create, it is recommended that faculty consider making the following information visible on, or included within their faculty-produced media:
(c) [year], Prepared by [name of faculty member], Professor, Queen's University [email address] for use in [course, term].
A Creative Commons license could be applied at the faculty member's discretion, please see the Creative Commons Licenses section below (a Creative Commons license would apply only to the faculty-produced media, not to any incorporated content), or the line above could be accompanied by a statement addressing the use of the faculty-produced media within the course and/or program as well as the reproduction, distribution, and communication of the faculty-produced media online and outside of the course and/or program.
Example: This video is protected by copyright and was prepared for use within [course, term] by students enrolled in the course. The reproduction, distribution, and communication of this video online and outside of [course, term] is not permitted without permission from [name of faculty member], Professor, Queen's University [email address].
The Copyright Advisory Office offers a Takedown Notice service for Queen's faculty who have found their faculty-produced media on websites, platforms, or online services and would like their faculty-produced media removed from such sites. For information about this service, please see our page linked above or contact the Copyright Services Office for assistance: 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 seven Creative Commons licenses that permit specific uses of content and works and range from from least to most restrictive.
All seven Creative Commons licenses permit educational use but some licenses do not permit adaptations or the creation of derivative works such as incorporating components (ie blocks of text or images) from Creative Commons-licensed content and works into handouts, postings, slides, quizzes, tests, or exams.
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.*
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.