Vice-President Academic & Provost Patrick Monahan issued this announcement to the community:

Recently the Supreme Court of Canada issued decisions on five copyright appeals that relate to a range of copyright issues.  These decisions broaden the Copyright Act’s fair dealing provision for materials copied while providing reasonable safeguards for the owners of those works.  This has significant and positive implications for the copying practices at York University.

After careful review, and working with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), York University has updated our Fair Dealing Requirements to reflect these changes in copyright law.  We will be providing further updates when Bill C-11 (The Copyright Modernization Act) comes into effect to provide advice on how to interpret the copying requirements for materials used in teaching, learning and research.

Over the past year, York has provided practical guidance on how copyright has an impact on your copying choices. As part of our ongoing commitment to copyright compliance, plans are being put in place to provide additional support for all York courses, whether they are online, blended, experiential learning or on-campus. Further updates on this process will be made available on the Copyright website.

We would like to thank the university community for their support as we have undertaken these challenges over the past year. Information sessions will continue to be held over the coming months to assist with this transition. For more information or assistance with your decisions in copying or posting, contact York University’s Copyright Office at copy@yorku.ca.

31/08/2012