24. What are the copyright implications for sharing material on Perusall?

The considerations for sharing materials on Perusall are similar to the considerations for sharing material on a learning management system such as LEARN. You may share copyright-protected material on Perusall if one of the following situations applies:

• You downloaded the content through a Library licence that allows this particular use. You can check Library licence permissions by following the step-by-step instructions on the Finding usage rights page. Note that Library licence rules take precedence over Fair Dealing, so you can't apply Fair Dealing to upload electronic Library material to Perusall.
• You scanned content from a print source, according to the limits of the Fair Dealing Advisory. For example, one chapter or up to 10% of a book may be uploaded to a Perusall course.
• You are using content that was made freely available online. Section 30.04 of the Copyright Act allows you to copy an entire work that has been made available on the Internet as long as the following criteria are met:
  • You are reasonably certain that the copy of the work is a legal copy. For more information on this please see question 17.
  • You do not bypass any technological protection measures (such as password protection) or any digital rights management software (such as Adobe Digital Editions) to access the material.
  • There is no visible notice on the website prohibiting copying. The notice must be more than simply the copyright symbol (©).
  • You are providing access only to students registered in the course.
  • You cite the source, and provide the name of the creator where available.

In each of these cases, access must be limited only to the students and instructors affiliated with the course, and proper acknowledgement of the source must be provided.

If you need assistance assessing whether any of these applies in your case, please send an email to copyright@uwaterloo.ca.