This section of the guide applies to copying print materials such as books, journals, magazines, and newspapers.
You may copy or scan a section of a printed work, as long as it falls under fair dealing guidelines or an educational exception.
If you are not sure whether your copying falls under fair dealing or an educational exception contact the library for support at copyright@jibc.ca.
If permission is necessary, contact the Library for assistance. This applies if you wish to exceed Fair Dealing guidelines or if the material states that it cannot be copied or distributed.
The public domain refers to works that are free from copyright protection. Anyone may use these works without asking for permission or paying royalties.
In Canada, works enter the public domain 70 years after the creator's death (on January 1st of the following year). This is called the "life +70" rule.
Works can be in the public domain for many reasons:
In some cases, a work may enter the public domain but a specific edition or image of the work may still be under copyright.
Collective works refer to collections of materials such as an anthology of short stories or poems. Compilations are the arrangement of data to create a new work such as a dictionary or database.
Collective works and compilations have two separate copyrights:
The person who selects and arranges the the works in the collection or compilation owns the copyright for the work as a whole. The person who created the original contributions maintains copyright of their individual works. The copyright terms for each entity may be different and may expire at different times.
Under fair dealing, you may copy one work from a collection unless the work is commercially available as a stand-alone work. In that case, fair dealing does not apply as the work is itself a complete publication.
A viable option is to link to the work found in JIBC databases or legally available online.
Copying the text of Canadian federal, provincial and territorial statutes, regulations, and judicial decisions is allowed (except for those of Manitoba, Quebec, and Nunavut).
BC Statutes and Regulations are covered by the King's Printer License.
Copying U.S. federal government materials is allowed (this material is in the public domain).
If a work is out-of-print, copyright and the Fair Dealing Guidelines still apply. If you wish to use material from an out-of-print work, and the amount you wish to use exceeds the Fair Dealing Guidelines, a request must be made to the publisher for authorization. Contact the Library for assistance.