Photocopying a book chapter for a class handout? Scanning a journal article to upload to SLATE? You have rights to copy – just keep it fair by following the Sheridan Fair Dealing Guidelines.
What’s fair?
- You CAN copy short excerpts from printed material. A short excerpt is defined as up to 10 percent of a book or journal, or, one chapter or one article, whichever is greater.
- You CAN scan and upload short excerpts as a digital file, such as a pdf, to SLATE.
- You CAN photocopy short excerpts as handouts for classroom use.
How to keep it fair:
- Limit access to copied materials to the students in your class. Keep scanned material behind SLATE’s password protection.
- Use one short excerpt from a book or journal per semester. Uploading one chapter in Week One of your course then taking it down to upload the next chapter in Week Two is considered to be cumulative copying. This is not considered to be fair to the copyright holder.
Consult the Fair Dealing Guidelines for further details on your educator copy rights.
Need to exceed the short excerpt limit? Have questions on using or copying Internet images, YouTube, DVDs, or digital library material? Check out the Copyright Services Guidelines for Professors or contact Patricia Buckley, Sheridan’s Copyright Coordinator for help.
