The careful foot can walk anywhere. - Proverb

The Copyright Office ensures that AU has permission to use all third-party materials that appear in AU courses.

Because obtaining copyright clearances from rights-holders often takes time, we strongly recommend that all potential copyright issues are discussed well in advance, preferably at the early course team meetings.  Please submit all copyright requests and materials as soon as they have been confirmed for inclusion in the course.

Contact the Copyright Office on the staff page or email us at copyright@athabascau.ca.

Download the copyright form on the AU intranet form page.

Course developers

To help us provide quick turn-around service please review the following guidelines to ensure that all necessary information is attached to the copyright form:

• Complete and submit a copyright form for each item.
• Submit all items as soon as you have confirmed they will be used in your course.
• For items that are retrieved from websites, provide a complete printout that includes headers, footers, page numbers, and URLs.
• Specify which material is for print and which is for electronic reproduction.
• For print-based reading files try to select items that do not exceed Access Copyright guidelines, and that are not on Access Copyright's exclusion list.
• For online items, allow sufficient time for materials to be licensed.
• Consider linking to material on external websites rather than seeking permission to copy material to an AU server.
• Consider how the AU library can help you.  For instance, when using the Digital Reading Room (DRR) you may link to online journal database items.
• Please be advised that the Copyright Office will not seek clearances for any supplementary materials.

More on electronic copyright

Athabasca University does not automatically have the right to reproduce an item in electronic format even though permission to reproduce it in print is granted. Unless specified, copyright permission is for one delivery medium only. Even though material is accessible online does not mean that it is free to reproduce in AU courses.

Guidelines

Whether you are designing a new Athabasca University course or revising an existing one, each time you add any material that you did not create to the course, the new material will require copyright clearance. All copyright negotiations occur through the Copyright Office.

Copyright is required for

• all materials you (or AU contractors) did not develop
• journal articles
• chapters from books
• images
• charts and graphs
• material copied from websites
• video and audio files
• photographs
• powerpoint presentations
• items on the Access Copyright Post-Secondary Exclusions List
• unpublished documents
• student work products

Copyright is not required for

• anything you (or AU contractors) have created yourself
• articles from AU Library subscribed electronic journal databases that are linked to in course web pages or in the Digital Reading Room (DRR)
• links to external websites
• materials that are in public domain

Access Copyright guidelines

Access Copyright, the Canadian copyright licensing agency, provides access to various copyright protected works. Our licence provides AU with quick, legal, and economic access to most published works while ensuring that publishers and creators are fairly compensated.
The use of any substantial amount of an item that has not been created by an AU employee or that is not in the public domain means that copyright is always required.

AU uses the Access Copyright agreement to clear the majority of its print-based reproductions.  Exceptions occur when materials requested exceed the parameters outlined below.

Up to 10% of an item, or the following (whichever is greater):

• an entire newspaper article or a page
• an entire short story, play, poem, essay, or article
• an entire entry from an encyclopedia or dictionary
• an entire chapter, that comprises 20% or less of a book

Learn more

• AU Copyright Package
• AU Library’s Digital Reading Room (DRR) Best Practices
• Industry Canada's A Guide to Copyrights
• The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)
• Creative Commons