Faculty often wonder if they retain copyright of the materials they create while employed at St. Clair College. There is guidance on this matter to consider from the Faculty Collective Agreement as well as from the Copyright Act.

OPSEU Academic Collective Agreement 2017 – 2021

Article 13
COPYRIGHT AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM
13.01 Except as may be otherwise mutually agreed between the employee and the
College, a work commissioned by the College, or produced pursuant to the
employee’s normal administrative or professional duties with the College, shall be
and remain the property of the College. Other works produced by an employee shall
be and remain the property of the employee. Nothing contained herein shall
adversely affect any rights an employee may have under the Copyright Act
(Canada) and in particular the subsection addressing “work made in the course of
employment”.

Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42)

Ownership of copyright

13 (1) Subject to this Act, the author of a work shall be the first owner of the copyright therein.

(2) [Repealed, 2012, c. 20, s. 7]

Marginal note:Work made in the course of employment

(3) Where the author of a work was in the employment of some other person under a contract of service or apprenticeship and the work was made in the course of his employment by that person, the person by whom the author was employed shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be the first owner of the copyright, but where the work is an article or other contribution to a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical, there shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be deemed to be reserved to the author a right to restrain the publication of the work, otherwise than as part of a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical.