To help protect the University of Ottawa and its professors from any inadvertent violation of Canadian copyright law, the Copyright Office will begin performing random examinations of published content uploaded to courses in Virtual Campus (Brightspace) in the Fall 2021 term, as approved by the University’s Administration Committee. Further examinations may be later carried out in relation to other course content platforms, such as Microsoft Teams. Please rest assured that any such examinations will be conducted with the prior consent of the professor(s) teaching the course, and the information collected during these examinations will be solely for the following purposes:
- Ensuring that professors are not placing themselves or the University at legal risk by inadvertently using content in violation of Canadian copyright law.
- Demonstrating that the University adheres to its contractual obligations with the supplier of the Virtual Campus (Brightspace) platform, as well as its Fair Dealing Guidelines.
Here is how the examination process will work:
- In any given term, a random selection of up to 10% of courses included in Virtual Campus (Brightspace) will be identified by Copyright Office staff, in order to ensure appropriate representation of all faculties.
- Professors responsible for the identified courses will be contacted by a member of the Copyright Office via their uOttawa email. This email will request their consent, in order to perform an examination of their Virtual Campus (Brightspace) content for the course in question.
- Upon consent being provided by the professors, the content of the courses will be examined by Copyright Office staff via direct access to the platform.
- Should any situations be identified in which professors may be exposing themselves or the University to legal risk, they will be once again contacted by a member the Copyright Office in order to find a collaborative solution that will minimize any disruptions to the delivery of the course. No action will be taken without first communicating with the professor.
- If necessary, the University will make any retroactive copyright royalty payments required.
- Any data retained following this process will not contain a professor’s identity and will be managed in accordance with the University’s Policy on Information Management, with a maximum retention period of 7 years.
If you have any concerns about copyright in Virtual Campus (Brightspace), you are encouraged to contact the Copyright Office or to seek assistance in selecting published material for your course (see Using Virtual Campus). Also, making use of the Library’s Course Reserve Service (which can be integrated into your course on Virtual Campus [Brightspace]) should ensure that you do not encounter any issues relating to copyright for your digital course content, as copyright clearance will be performed by trained Library staff.
Should you have any questions about this program, please feel free to contact us. We look forward to working with you to ensure that both professors and the University are protected from the risk of copyright infringement.