Copyright Considerations

Are there copyright considerations I need to think about when using GenAI tools?

Yes — and it’s still evolving.

In Canada, the legal landscape around AI (including training data, copyright, and privacy) is still developing. Guidance may change as policies, regulations, and case law evolve.

Pause before you paste or upload anything.

Be careful what you paste or upload. When you enter text into a GenAI tool, you are sharing a copy with a third party (course materials, research materials, or work documents). That’s a question of permission (and sometimes a privacy question), not just a copyright question. Depending on the tool and settings, your input may be stored, reviewed, or used to improve the service.

Legal Uncertainty

It is still unclear how (or if) existing copyright exceptions in Canada (such as fair dealing) apply to GenAI training and related uses.

• Don’t paste/upload full articles, textbooks, slides, tests, student work, research data, contracts, or internal documents unless you have permission to share them in this way.
• Avoid confidential or sensitive information, and personal information about others (student info, HR details, patient/client info, identifiable cases). Use placeholders where possible.
• Depending on the tool and settings, what you enter may be stored, reviewed, or reused. Avoid sharing anything sensitive, confidential, or permission-restricted

GenAI can generate helpful drafts, but ownership and copyright can be unclear. Tool terms and the amount of human contribution may matter.

Authorship and ownership of works created by GenAI is unclear. Traditionally, Canadian law has said that an author must be human and must exercise skill and judgement in the creation of a work. With varying degrees of human input, it may be unclear who the appropriate author and owner is.

• You may not own or hold copyright in the works generated.
• Review the terms of service of each tool regularly. These terms dictate use and ownership of input/output and may change without notice.
• Be explicit about how you used GenAI. Keep a record of prompts and what you contributed. Follow relevant citation/attribution guidance.

(e.g., licensed e-resources such as journal articles or eBooks)

Generally, no.

Most library eBooks/articles are provided under license agreements. Those agreements usually do not allow uploading or sharing the full text with third-party AI tools. Don’t upload PDFs, chapters, or full articles into external platforms.

If you have questions about library-licensed resources and GenAI, please the Head of the Library Collections Management and Services at the University’s Dr. John Archer Library.

What types of materials are safer to upload to a GenAI tool from the perspective of copyrights?

• Content you created (your own notes, your draft, with identifiers removed)
• Content you have permission to reuse/share, such as: Creative Commons licensed content (e.g., CC BY) – follow the terms public domain materials; and
• Content you have explicit permission to upload (e.g., from the creator/ instructor)

Creative Commons and AI Creative
Commons works are usually still copyrighted; the licence is what gives permission to reuse/share them, as long as you follow the conditions (like attribution). For more information, see FAQs on AI and CC Licenses.

Need help or unsure what’s allowable?

Contact your Subject Librarian.

 

This section on copyrights and GenAI was adapted from Mount Royal Library’s Copyright FAQ, available under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.