Copyright Compliance for Academic Institutions

Copyright impacts all academic institutions. Whether engaged in post-secondary instruction, research, vocational training, or K-12 education, universities, colleges, institutes, school boards, and ministries of education must manage the use and distribution of copyright-protected works by faculty, staff, students, and teachers. All this must be done in compliance with federal copyright legislation and relevant case law, including recent changes in 2012 that affected the academic copyright regime. With the increasing use and development of new media, digital content, course management systems, open source publishing, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), and other learning platforms and models, copyright compliance in the education sector has rapidly grown in complexity.

The Copyright Compliance Group has significant experience in advising academic institutions on all aspects of copyright. Whatever copyright-related issues and projects your institution is currently facing, RBS has the relevant institutional experience to assist and any of its lawyers would be pleased to assist you.

The Copyright Compliance Group has specific experience with the following:

• Interpretation and implementation of licenses, assignments. and other permissions
• Reviewing and advising on license agreements between institutions and Access Copyright
• Development of internal tracking systems to manage copyright permissions and transactional licenses
• Preparation and use of course packs and other course materials, assignments, presentations and publications
• Drafting and developing copyright policies, guidelines, practices, frequently asked questions, copyright consents, and template agreements for implementation with faculty, staff and students
• Interpretation and application of fair dealing and other user rights under Bill C-11, The Copyright Modernization Act
• Advising on the creation of digital repositories and electronic resource license databases
• Reviewing and advising on electronic resource license agreements between universities and publishers
• Ongoing consultation and support