Sometimes, Course Management Systems (CMS) vendors such as Canvas offer publisher-created content with their systems including readings and course syllabi for which they have obtained all necessary copyright permissions. This vendor-provided content can be used by instructors without seeking copyright permissions. When uploading and providing access to content other than such vendor-provided content, instructors must seek permission from the copyright holder even if the content is password-protected. If permission is needed to reproduce content in paper format for distribution to multiple students, then permission is also needed to use the same content in an electronic/digital format which is being made available to multiple students. For more information, please see Copyright Clearance Center’s Using Content:Course Management Systems.
Below are some guidelines for ensuring legal and/or fair use of copyrighted content in online teaching. Irrespective of the format of copyrighted content being used, faculty members should make sure that they:
Link to content (rather than up/downloading copies) whenever possible as that is generally not considered violation of copyright unless the content itself contains infringing materials
Limit the amount of copyrighted content used. Use of more than a brief excerpt from content on digital networks is unlikely to be transformative and therefore unlikely to be a fair use.
Limit access to the content to students enrolled in the course.
Notify students that the content is being made available for teaching, study, and research only.
Place the content in the context of the course, explaining why they were chosen and what they are intended to illustrate. Recontextualize and transform the original purpose of the content when appropriate through the addition of study questions, commentary, criticism, annotation, and student reactions.
Provide attributions to the known copyright-owners of the content
Use content that serves a pedagogical purpose and is not used for aesthetic and/or entertainment purposes.