Copyright is the set of rights in the Canadian Copyright Act granted to creators of original works to exploit their works and to ensure that use of their works is properly credited. The Copyright Act strives to balance the interests of creators of original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works and other copyrighted subject matter with the interests of users of copyrighted subject matter.
Creators of original works have the sole right to produce, reproduce, perform, publish, adapt, and distribute their works, and to authorize these acts by others. The Copyright Act allows users certain limited rights which are exceptions to copyright (user rights); these rights do not infringe copyright. User rights include those uses deemed to be fair dealing for purposes of research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, parody, and satire.
All University of Lethbridge faculty, students, and staff are obliged to uphold copyright law. This is an important but complex obligation, as copyright is far-reaching (it applies to published and unpublished original works in any fixed format including print, audio-visual, and digital); a given work may consist of several component works (copyright may subsist in each component work); and the determination of permissible uses and obligations for a given work can be an intricate process (permissible uses may depend on, among other things, the intended users and the proposed uses, and may include conditions specified by copyright owners).
The University Copyright Advisor provides guidance and permissions services for University of Lethbridge faculty, students, and staff in matters involving copyright. To discuss copyright questions or concerns, please contact the University Copyright Advisor at copyright@uleth.ca.
Taken from: What is Copyright?