Copyright for instructors

Course materials in Canvas

Instructors may place copyrighted materials needed for course instruction into the Canvas course management system.

Materials available through the library, or that we can purchase

Materials that are available via the library can be added to a Reading List in Canvas:

  • After you navigate to your Reading List, you can search for materials that the library provides access to, and add them directly to your list. If you add a physical item, a message will be sent to the library to process the item for reserves. If it’s an electronic item, a link will be created in the reading list directly to the item.
  • If you add an item we don't own to your list, the library will try to purchase it.

Materials not available through the library

If your materials aren't available through the library, consider the following questions:

  • Is the material in the public domain?
  • Do you have permission from the copyright holder (who may or may not be the author) to reproduce the material?
  • Is the material covered by a license, such as a Creative Commons license, that permits reproduction?
  • Does your proposed re-use fall under fair use? See Stanford Library's Fair Use overview for help determining this.

If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you may upload the material to Canvas. Make sure that the material you upload displays the name of the creator and a copyright statement (this may be the name of the copyright holder, a Creative Commons license, a note about being in the public domain, etc.) - you may need to edit a file in Adobe or another editing program to add this text in.

If none of the above options apply, and you still want to use a copyrighted work, you should attempt to obtain permission from the copyright holder. If you've exhausted the options above and cannot obtain permission to reproduce the material, you shouldn't use the material. You can also get in touch with us for help figuring out the best path for seeking permission.

Scanning materials under fair use

Copyright law doesn't define a specific amount of an item that can be scanned under a fair use assessment. Based on copyright guidelines, we typically recommend no more than one or two chapters of a book at most, and no more than 20% of the total work, whichever comes first.

Collaborative Annotation Tools

Before selecting content to use in Perusall or other collaborative annotations tools, consider copyright law and/or whether this use is allowed by a license. Favor materials in the public domain or that carry a license open to this type of use, such as a Creative Commons license. Additionally, in Perusall, for example, it is possible to link to some content such as webpages and other publicly viewable videos and podcasts.  

Many licenses for library-subscribed resources may not allow downloading of content into Canvas for use in these tools. Seek permission from the publisher before adding their content. Perusall maintains a catalog of titles from which you can select textbooks to use within the platform for a fee, which may be appropriate in situations where students would be purchasing the textbooks anyway. 

In-class instruction

Performance or display of a work in the course of face-to-face teaching activities at a non-profit educational institution, as well some instances in online courses, is permitted under Section 110 of the Copyright law (short summary of Section 110). This includes using or showing legal copies of texts, videos, images, and other types of course materials in the classroom. Fair use may also apply.

Online courses

Copyrighted materials can be used in online courses by following requirements from the “Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act” (TEACH Act). In order to qualify¹ –

Institutions must:

  • Be an accredited, non-profit educational institution
  • Have copyright policies and must post a copyright notice on online course materials
  • Have technological measures in place to support compliance with TEACH Act requirements
  • Copyrighted materials:
  • Must be for a “mediated instructional activity”
  • Must be limited to students enrolled in the class
  • Must be used in live or asynchronous class sessions
  • May not include textbook materials “typically acquired or purchased by students”
  • Only “reasonable” portions of the original work may be used

To see if your use of material falls under the TEACH Act, see this handy checklist.

¹Thanks to Oral Roberts University for this summary of the TEACH Act.

Resources

The Office of University Counsel offers Guidelines for Instructors for Using Copyrighted Materials for specific uses in instruction. For questions about where you can use something, see page 2; questions about using a specific type of work, see page 4; or questions about what purpose you can use something for, see page 7. 

Find course reserves and contact information specific to your library:

Students who need assistance accessing print texts in an electronic format should contact their school’s library.