| Archives
of Ontario
Customer Service Guide 108
Archives of Ontario Policy
The Canadian Copyright Act gives a creator the
exclusive right to reproduce, perform, or publish his/her
work. The records in the holdings of the Archives of Ontario
all have creators, whether it be an architect drawing up
the plans of Casa Loma, a citizen writing a letter to her
MPP, or a government photographer covering a Royal Visit.
The Copyright
Act also balances the rights of creators to control
the use of their works with the needs of users who require
access to copyright material for specific purposes. Recent
amendments to the Act include certain exceptions which permit
the Archives to provide copies of material in its holdings
subject to certain conditions. The following policies are
consistent with Canadian copyright law.
The Archives of Ontario will make one copy
of any record in its holdings for research or private
study, unless donors or copyright holders have
expressly prohibited copying or other restrictions apply
(e.g. to preserve the record).
The Archives of Ontario Library will make copies
of single periodical articles, or of portions of books
and other published works, for research or private
study, in accordance with the Fair Dealing clause
in the Copyright Act.
For uses other than research or private study, researchers
must submit a Request
for Permission to Publish, Exhibit or Broadcast form.
This policy is necessary because the Archives of Ontario
needs to confirm that there are no legal restrictions on
the use that is made of its holdings. Archivists check the
copyright status of the record and check if the donor has
placed any additional restrictions on its use.
The Copyright Act also applies to records obtained
through a request made under the Freedom
of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
What the Copyright Act means for your research
Self-serve Copying
Please be aware that you are responsible for any infringement
of copyright when you make copies in the Reading Rooms either
from the microfilm printers or from the computers (by printing
or downloading). Consult the signs posted by the printers
for details.
Requesting Copies
To fulfil its obligations under the Copyright Act,
the Archives of Ontario must keep a record of every copy
order and be satisfied that the person ordering a copy will
only use it for research or private study. This means that
a copy request form must be completed in detail and signed
for all copying even for the Reading Room Photocopy Service.
For instructions on filling out a reproduction order, please
consult Customer
Service Guide 106: How to Order Reproductions.
The Act requires the Archives to make information about
copies made (including the name of the requester and the
material copied) available to the copyright owners or their
agents upon written request.
Requesting permission to publish, exhibit or broadcast
In what cases do I have to request permission from
the Archives?
You are required to submit a "Request
for Permission to Publish, Exhibit or Broadcast"
form (available in the Archives' Reading Rooms) for use
beyond research and private study of any copy, regardless
of copyright status, acquired from the Archives. Please
request permission if you plan to use the copy in any of
the following ways, whether for-profit or not-for-profit:
- in a publication such as a book, newsletter, newspaper,
journal article, pamphlet, or brochure
- on a website, CD-ROM
- in a film, radio, television or internet broadcast
- in a curriculum aid, academic paper
- in an advertisement, poster, post-card
- in an exhibition in a gallery, museum , display, or
space accessible to many people
- when quoting the whole or a substantial part of a document
- in short, for any work that will be reproduced OR viewed
by many people
In what cases would I NOT have to request permission
for use beyond research and private study?
| Case 1: |
publishing, exhibiting, or broadcasting an insubstantial
part of any record (e.g. one paragraph of a letter)
is not an infringement of copyright. Please be sure
to cite the "Archives of Ontario" as the source
of the record; consult Customer
Service Guide 107: Guide to Citing Archival Records
for further details. |
| Case 2: |
publishing, exhibiting, or broadcasting copies of
records owned by other institutions
(e.g., microfilm from another archive or library, photocopies
or transcripts of manuscripts owned by another institution,
copy negatives of photographs whose originals are held
by another repository).
In this case, you must request permission from the
owner of the original or the copyright holder. If
in doubt about the ownership, submit a Request
for Permission to Publish Exhibit or Broadcast form
to the Archives of Ontario. |
| Case 3: |
publishing, exhibiting, or broadcasting less than
a substantial part (e.g., one chapter in a book) of
published material where copyright is held by
the Crown (Government of Ontario) or publishing,
exhibiting, or broadcasting published material
whose author died more than 50 years ago.
|
| Case 4: |
uses such as hanging a copied photograph in your
living room, or posting a copied reference map at your
workstation, or if you are quoting less than a substantial
part of a record (e.g., a few sentences of a document). |
| If in doubt, submit
a Request for
Permission to Publish, Exhibit or Broadcast form
to the Archives of Ontario. |
What happens after I submit my request for permission
to publish, exhibit or broadcast?
Within 2 weeks, the Archives of Ontario will respond to
your request either authorizing use or explaining that the
Archives cannot grant permission because of copyright or
donor restrictions. The Archives will supply any information
we have on file to assist you in identifying and locating
the copyright holder or donor, but it is ultimately your
responsibility to contact him/her to request permission.
If there is insufficient information for an archivist to
determine copyright status, the decision and risk to proceed
with the use is assumed by the researcher.
If you are granted permission, be sure to cite the source
of the material as "Archives of Ontario". A full
citation will allow others to locate the original and also
gives credit to the creator or donor of the material. Consult
Customer Service Guide
107: Guide to Citing Archival Records for further
details.
Note: Please be aware that the copyright information given in
descriptions of archival material is only as accurate as
a preliminary assessment allows. Determining who holds copyright
can be a very complex investigation. Once a request for
permission to publish, exhibit or broadcast is received,
archivists will more carefully examine the copyright status
of each individual record.
Further Information?
Contact a Reference
Archivist for information specific to the records
you would like to use.
For more information you may wish to consult the Canadian
Copyright
Act.
|
