Legal Information
The material in this guide provides basic information and guidance about copyright and fair use in an academic setting. Nothing on this guide should be interpreted as legal advice.
What can I post on D2L?
Posting an item to D2L does not exempt an instructor from copyright regulations. The below chart includes best practices and guidelines but please remember they are not the law. Fair use is a flexible exception to copyright law and is always determined on a case-by-case basis. In some instances, you can use greater amounts of a copyrighted work and it will still be considered fair use. If you are not sure if something you would like to upload would be fair use, you can complete a fair use checklist before scanning or posting the material for your class.
| Item | Allowed | Generally Not Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Website containing copyrighted material | Link to the website via the LMS | Copying and pasting the information into the LMS |
| Article from a library database | Direct linking to article allowed; permalinks are best | Copying and pasting the article into the LMS |
| Scanned article from a journal, magazine, newspaper, or trade publication | A single article per journal issue or 2-3 articles from same journal. Students should only have access during the semester enrolled. | Multiple articles from the same publication |
| Scanned chapter from a book | A conservative guideline is 10% of the total work. | Large portions of the book or several chapters |
| Video | Link to freely available videos; showing film clips. Check the video section of this guide for more information | Uploading entire film to LMS or using most commercial streaming services over Zoom |
Adapted from a chart created by Dan Nolting, Chatham University. Modified and reused with permission.