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Copyright and Course Materials Posted on D2L

This resource is intended to provide CUPE Unit 1 Contract Lecturers with basic information surrounding copyright of course materials during a period of rapid transition to online models of teaching and learning. More information on copyright and your teaching (including the copying and reposting of your work by students) can be found on the University Library website, Copyright at TMU.

Under “fair dealing” someone can use someone else’s copyright-protected work without permission from the copyright owner if the user meets a two part test:

(1) the “dealing” must be for research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire or parody;

(2) the dealing must be “fair”.

Please see the Toronto Metropolitan University Fair Dealing Guideline to understand more.

The owner of a copyrighted work has the exclusive right to produce, reproduce, perform, or publish the work or any substantial and protected part of the work. An owner of a copyrighted work may allow others, through license, to produce, reproduce, perform, or publish the work or any substantial and protected part of the work.

Pursuant to the CUPE Collective Agreement, a Contract Lecturer who creates a copyrighted work in the course of their normal duties and responsibilities owns the work they create except for copyright in:

(i) any assessment, grading, report, or correspondence produced pursuant to their normal administrative duties within the University;

(ii) any material provided to the Contract Lecturer to assist them in carrying out their duties (i.e. course outline, laboratory manual) even if it was modified by the Contract Lecturer; or

(iii) any work produced and designed to assist in the day-to-day administration, operation and/or management of the University's affairs.

Through the collective agreement Contract Lecturer grants the University a non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable and non-transferable license to use the copyrighted material they produce for a course for non-commercial teaching and/or SRC activities of the University. This license does not extend to a Contract Lecturer’s personal documents, (i.e. unpublished lecture notes, course notes, lab notes or any work-in-progress).

The Contract Lecturer may withdraw the license because of dating or other bona fide scholarly reasons provided that the Contract Lecturer has provided the University with reasonable notice of the change being sought and has been unsuccessful in effecting such change.