Copyright is the legal right of creators of certain types of original works to control how their work are used. It includes both economic rights (such as the right to copy, publish, and perform their works) and moral rights (such as the right of attribution, which is the right to be identified as the creator of the work). The economic rights associated with copyright can be assigned to another person or entity, such as a publisher, who then becomes the copyright holder. Copyright is not an absolute right. Users -- such as instructors and students -- have limited rights that allow them to use (e.g. reproduce) copyrighted works in certain circumstances without the need to obtain permission or pay royalties.
The following types of original creative works are protected by copyright:
“Copying” includes (but is not limited to) the following:
Posting a link in Moodle to licensed content or publicly available material on the internet is not copying.
Initially, copyright belongs to the creator of an original work (or in some circumstances, the creator’s employer).
Copyright can be and often is assigned to another person or entity, such as a publisher, who then becomes the copyright holder.
The copyright holder has the right to determine how a work is used, and can require others to obtain permission and pay royalties to copy the work. Some copyright holders explicitly grant users permission to use their works for certain purposes through a license (e.g. a Creative Commons license) or through the terms of use (e.g. a website), and may waive the right to collect royalties.
In Canada, copyright in most works lasts for the life of the creator plus 50 years, after which the work moves into the public domain. This rule applies even if the creator has assigned copyright in the work to another person or entity, such as a publisher.
Note that under the terms of the Canada - United States - Mexico (CUSMA) trade agreement, the copyright term in Canada will be extended to the life of the author plus 70 years on January 1, 2023.
Works move into the public domain after the author/creator has been dead for 50 years. Public domain works can be copied without permission or the payment of royalties. Note that annotations and translations of works that have moved into the public domain, such as Shakespeare's plays or Luther's works, trigger a "new" copyright in the annotated version or translation that is protected by copyright for the life of the annotator or translator plus 50 years.
Free content on the internet is not in the public domain unless the creator has been dead for 50 years. Fortunately, section 30.04 of the Copyright Act allows instructors to copy and share "publicly available material (PAM) on the internet" with students if certain conditions are met (see the Free Internet Content tab for details).