Copyright at College of the Rockies for Students

1. What can I legally copy?
For guidelines to copyright compliant copying, check out the following pages in this guide Access Copyright, Fair Dealing, and Educational Use of the Internet. This includes the copying of materials on course reserve.

2. Can I record my instructors' lectures?
No, under the Copyright Act and as per College of the Rockies policy, either the College or the instructor owns the rights to their lectures. As such, students must seek and receive explicit permission from the copyright holder prior to recording the lecture.

3. Where can I get images for inclusion in my course work?
With respect to images in particular, some websites allow you to search specifically for images that have been licensed for reuse or that are in the public domain. There are some excellent resources for finding these types of images, including:

• Creative Commons Search: A meta-search tool which can be used to find CC-licensed images on Google Images, Fotopedia, Europeana, etc., as well as other CC-licensed works.
• Flickr Commons: A wonderful collection of public domain images from a variety of libraries, archives, and museums, including the Library of Congress, NASA, the Getty Research Institute, the Museum of Photographic Arts, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and many more.
• Wikimedia Commons: A database of nearly 20 million freely usable image, sound, and video files. To find any specific instructions for reusing or attributing images, check the "licensing" section on the image page.

Also check out these guides on Using Images and Finding and Using Online Images. For citation information for images and information on how to attribute Creative Commons-licensed images check out UBC's Image Citation Guide.

4. My group want to show a film on campus. Do we need permission?
No, the College maintains Public Performance licences with Criterion and Audio Ciné Please see the 'Showing a film on school premises' section of the Multi-Media page of this guide.

5. Can I use copyrighted works to create new works for my assignments?
Yes. Section 29.21 of the Copyright Act permits anyone (not just instructors and students) to create what is commonly referred to as a mash-up. However, certain conditions must be met. See Mash-ups on the Multi-Media page of this guide.
The mash-up may be posted on YouTube or on a website.

6. What is the difference between copyright and plagiarism?
"The two are similar in some aspects, however the two are distinctively different. Plagiarism is claiming attribution for a work you did not author, or using someone else's work without proper attribution. Copyright infringement is using someone else's work without obtaining their permission."    --- ask.lib.byu.edu/a.php?qid=230251 

For more information, see the 'Academic Honesty & Integrity and Avoiding Plagiarism' guide and 'What is Copyright?' in this guide.

7. What happens if I violate or infringe copyright?
B.3.2 states: "Students violating the Canadian Copyright Act will be subject to the College of the Rockies Procedures 2.4.5 Student Conduct & Responsibilities and 2.4.6 Student Discipline."

8. Who do I see to ask if I have more questions about copyright?
Please see Sue Morin - Copyright Technician in the Library.