Copyright: Copyright FAQ

No. Citation does not mean you have permission to use something. For example, providing attribution for a photo you share on Instagram doesn’t give you permission to post that photo. Citation is best practice in academia, but you still need to obey copyright laws in your use of copyrighted material.

Fair dealing allows copying for private study, education, and research. If you’ve purchased the textbook and are awaiting its arrival, that would strengthen the case for fair dealing in copying required readings. Fair dealing would not apply if you were copying chapters every week to avoid purchasing the text. SAIT’s Reg Erhardt Library has most physical textbooks available for short-term loan (4 hours). You can do a title search in the Reg Erhardt Library search box to see if we have a specific textbook.

• Textbooks posted online in their entirety are likely pirated copies. Academic publishers do not post online copies of the textbooks and your instructor will let you know if a textbook is open access.
• You can try to look for used or rental copies of textbooks at the SAIT Bookstore. The Reg Erhardt Library also has copies of some textbooks available for short-term (4 -hour) loan. Do a title search in Reg Erhardt Library search box to see if we have the textbook, you are looking for.

Generally, school assignments fall under Fair Dealing for private study and education. If you are posting your assignment online or publishing a project, copyright requirements for an image may change and you may need to request permission and/or pay for a license.

Please check with your professor before recording a lecture, as recording a lecture may constitute academic misconduct (see SAIT Policy AC.3.4.3). If you require a recording of a lecture for accessibility reasons, please contact the Accessibility Services for assistance.

There are many places where you can find open and/or royalty free images that you can use. Please see Finding and Using Images guide for additional information.

Public domain refers to creative works that are no longer protected by copyright . Creative works enter the public domain for several reasons, such as -

• Expired Copyright: Most works will enter the public domain 70 years after the death of the creator (unless the creator died before 1973, in which case, they are already in the public domain).
• Will of the creator: Copyright owners may place their work in the public domain to make the work accessible to the public.

The Copyright Act only protects the works that are creative, meaningful creations, and creators have fixed their work in material form, for example written down on a paper, or in a digital file. The Copyright Act does not protect -

• Titles, names, slogans, short word combinations. These are often protected through the Trademarks Act.
• Ideas – The Copyright Act protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. For example: if a person has an idea for a screenplay and writes it down, the written idea (fixed form) is copyright protected. If it is not in a fixed form, it is not protected.
• Facts – The Copyright Act protects the expression of facts, not the facts themselves.

According to the Canadian Copyright Act, every individual who has made a significant contribution to the project is a copyright holder. It is advised to decide copyright ownership before starting the project if you are thinking of publishing it on a platform or have other plans, for example a contract with all the member’s signature on it.