With final exam season approaching, please take note of some important information about copyright and course materials.

Students’ Reuse of Teaching Materials from York Courses

Generally, your instructors own the intellectual property of the teaching materials they create. Therefore any student wishing to reuse this content must either request permission from the instructor or limit their use to one of the “user rights” set out in the Copyright Act.

How Do I Find Out About My Instructors’ Copyrights?

Generally, instructors will allow students to take notes and make copies of materials for personal use as it relates to the class. If this permission is not captured in the syllabus or on the materials themselves, always check with your instructor. Note that you may not reproduce or distribute course materials without express permission.

When in doubt, always ask!

Be Aware of Note-Taking Sites & Sharing of Class Notes

It has come to recent attention that some popular note-taking sites are in infringement of copyright law. In most cases, uploading materials created by an instructor to sites such as Course Hero or OneClass would qualify as copyright infringement. Once notified, these sites will remove any infringing content and terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly post work to the site without permission of the rights holder.

For additional questions, please reach out to York’s Copyright Support Office at copy@yorku.ca, or to the ADA office (ada@schulich.yorku.ca).

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