Copyright: Copyright and Canvas

Lipscomb University is committed to promoting practices that are in compliance with federal copyright law.  The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to faculty on how to utilize Canvas while remaining compliant with copyright law. Please note that posting an item on Canvas does not exempt a faculty member from the responsibility to adhere to copyright law.

The following are general guidelines that Lipscomb University faculty should consider when posting material on Canvas:

1. Faculty shall only post materials onto Canvas for a non-profit, educational use. 
2. Faculty must include the proper attributions and citations for all posted materials.
3. Faculty should include the following Copyright Notice on their Blackboard sites:

   a.   COPYRIGHT NOTICE: The Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 10) governs the rights attributed to owners of copyrighted work.  Under certain circumstances, educational institutions may provide copies of copyrighted works to students.  The copies may not be copied nor used for any other purpose besides private study, scholarship, or research.  Users should not provide electronic copies of any materials provided on this course’s Blackboard site to unauthorized users.  If a user fails to comply with Fair Use restrictions, he/she may be held liable for copyright infringement.  No further transmission or electronic distribution is permitted. 

4. Access to course materials on Canvas should be limited to the faculty and students currently registered for that particular course.  Once the course is completed, students should no longer have access to any posted course materials. 

   Faculty should never post the entirety of a copyrighted work without the copyright owner’s express permission.  For example, faculty should not upload an entire book onto Canvas.