Copyright at College of the Rockies for Faculty & Staff

“By law, permission to publicly perform music in your business is not automatically granted when you purchase CD’s, mp3’s, or subscribe to online music services, etc. – doing this only allows you to use the music for private (non-commercial) purposes. Similarly, when you hire musicians to play music in your establishment or at a public event, the fees paid to them are for their performance, not to compensate the authors and publishers of the songs they perform. Even when performers play their own songs, they are entitled to separate compensation for those different efforts.” --- SOCAN

Educational use

As per Section 29.5(b) and (c) of the Canadian Copyright Act, instructors at College of the Rockies may play sound recordings, radios, and televisions subject to the following conditions:

• must take place on the premises of College of the Rockies
• must be for educational or training purposes
• must not be for profit
• audience must be primarily students of College of the Rockies or persons acting under its authority, or any person directly responsible for setting College curriculum, and
• the recording must not be an infringing copy

Non-educational use

College of the Rockies maintains yearly licences to cover tariffs for background music and some recreational activities. If you are organizing a non-educational College activity or event, which will include either live or recorded music and is not covered by these licences, a report of same must be submitted to the two copyright collective agencies listed below. To report an event, or for further information, please contact Sue Morin x.3407 in the Library with the following details (date and name of event, location and room capacity, with/without dancing, live/recorded music).

SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) is a not-for-profit Canadian copyright collective that seeks to obtain equitable remuneration for music performers and record companies by licensing the use of recorded music for public performance and broadcast.   

Re:Sound is the Canadian not-for-profit music licensing company dedicated to obtaining fair compensation for artists and record companies for their performance rights. Re:Sound suggests royalty rates for the different uses of sound recordings in Canada, based on the value of the music to the particular use.   

As of 2019, licences for both collectives (SOCAN & ReSound), as well as further information, are available via Entandem Licensing.