Copyright

The McGill Library wishes to enable users to respect intellectual property and legal requirements. Copyright law balances protection of the intellectual property of authors and publishers with provisions to encourage the distribution and use of this property.

Copyright law for digital publications such as the electronic resources provided by the Library to McGill users is evolving. The Library endeavours to protect the rights of McGill users to use electronic resources in learning, teaching, and research, and to have continuing, long term access to these resources.

The Library endeavours to protect the rights of copyright holders, recognizing their significant number at McGill. This protection enables authors to receive compensation for their contributions and to continue to support the communication of knowledge.

McGill users must respect the copyrights in works that are accessible through computers connected to the McGill University Network. No copyrighted work may be copied, published, disseminated, displayed, performed or played without permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with fair dealing or our licensing agreements.

Sources of information on copyright

For information pertaining to Canadian copyright, copyright agencies and collectives, please consult:

Canadian information

• McGill - Administrative Handbook - Copyright
  provides a description of the COPIBEC agreement, its provisions, photocopying options, etc
• Canadian Copyright Reform Considerations
• Société québécoise de gestion collective des droits de reproduction (COPIBEC)
  Information on the "reproduction of copyrighted works by Quebec universities"
• faircopyright.ca
  resource for teachers, students, and creators
• ©opyright information centre
  Information for libraries from the Canadian Library Association (CLA) but of potential use in other settings as well
• Copyright Act of Canada / Droit d'auteur
• Access Copyright
  "The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency" (formerly CanCopy)
• Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)
  Re patents, trademarks, and copyright. Includes a searchable Canadian Copyrights Database.
• In the Public Interest
  Michael Geist. Licensed under Creative Commons and available online.

International resources

• IFRRO (International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations)
• Creative Commons
  Non-profit organization attempting to build "upon the 'all rights reserved' of traditional copyright to create a voluntary 'some rights reserved' copyright."
• Copyscape
  Using your web page URL, finds sites that have copied your web content without permission, as well as those that have quoted you.
• Copyright Renewal Database

For more information

Questions concerning copyright or other licensing issues may be brought to the attention of the Nahum Gelber Law Library ( law [dot] library [at] mcgill [dot] ca (email) ).

McGill users also are urged to refer to complementary policies such as the Code of Conduct. McGill users are individually responsible for complying with the terms outlined in these policies.