Fair Dealing for Copyright-Protected Work Policy

To outline the rights of faculty and staff to use copyright-protected work for educational purposes and to provide reasonable safeguards for the owners of copyright-protected works in accordance with the Copyright Act and Supreme Court decisions.

This policy applies to all Seneca employees and students.

The sole right to produce, reproduce and copy a work in which copyright subsists. In Canada, all original creative works are automatically protected by copyright upon their creation and protection applies whether or not a copyright symbol appears on the material. Only the copyright owner or its authorized licensees have the right to decide when and how the work is to be copied, altered or made available. Regardless of format, the use, reproduction and distribution of copyright protected materials are subject to limits and restrictions.

1. Teachers, instructors, professors and staff members may communicate and reproduce, in paper or electronic form, short excerpts from a copyright-protected work for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire and parody.
2. Copying or communicating short excerpts from a copyright-protected work under this policy for the purpose of news reporting, criticism or review should mention the source and, if given in the source, the name of the author or creator of the work.
3. A single copy of a short excerpt from a copyright-protected work may be provided or communicated to each student enrolled in a class or course:
   • as a class handout
   • as a posting to a learning or course management system that is password-protected or otherwise restricted to students of a school or postsecondary educational institution
   • as part of a course pack.
4. A short excerpt may mean:
   • up to 10 per cent of a copyright-protected work (including a literary work, musical score, sound recording, and an audiovisual work)
   • one chapter from a book
   • a single article from a periodical
   • an entire artistic work (including a painting, print, photograph, diagram, drawing, map, chart and plan) from a copyright-protected work containing other artistic works
   • an entire newspaper article or page
   • an entire single poem or musical score from a copyright-protected work containing other poems or musical scores
   • an entire entry from an encyclopedia, annotated bibliography, dictionary or similar reference work.
5. Copying or communicating multiple short excerpts from the same copyright-protected work, with the intention of copying or communicating substantially the entire work, is prohibited.
6. Reproducing or communicating that exceeds the limits stated in this policy requires the application of the following six factors to determine if the copying is fair:
   • purpose of the copying
   • character of the copying
   • amount of the copying
   • alternatives to the copying
   • nature of the work
   • effect of the dealing on the work.
   Concerns about copying or communicating that may exceed the limits stated in this policy should be referred to the Copyright Team at theservicehub@senecapolytechnic.ca. An evaluation of whether the proposed copying or communication is permitted under fair dealing shall be made based on all relevant circumstances.
7. Any fees charged for communicating or copying a short excerpt from a copyright-protected work must be intended to cover only Seneca’s costs, including overhead costs.

• Copyright at Seneca

• Copyright Policy

• Association of Canadian Community Colleges Fair Dealing Policy
• Copyright Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42

Approval Date: September 2012

Last Revision:  September 2017