Copyright

The Canadian Copyright Act provides legal protection to original works of authorship, which includes literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, as well as, performer’s performance, communication signals and sound recordings.

Canadian copyright legislation, , falls under federal jurisdiction.

The Canadian Copyright Act provides legal protection to original works of authorship, which includes literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, as well as, performer’s performance, communication signals and sound recordings.

The 2012 Copyright Act has changed a few things. Even if you were familiar with copyright before that, it would be prudent to brush up on your knowledge.

For more info, please visit UVic’s copyright website. More introductory videos and materials.

"Copyright" video from the World Intellectual Property Organization

Music

Unless you have permission, you may not use commercial music in your video. However, some smaller (or even bigger) artists may grant non-commercial use of their music if you contact them or their agents. For example, Michael Buble granted permission to use his song in the UVic Lipdub.

The Fair Dealing clause grants exceptions for particular purposes, for example use in a class, parody or satire. The Fair Dealing clause does not apply to marketing videos which are available to the public.

How to find royalty-free music

Royalty free, or RF, refers to the right to use copyrighted material or intellectual property without the need to pay royalties or license fees for each use or per volume sold, or some time period of use or sales.

You can purchase music from the following recommended vendors:

, a Royalty Free music library, connects artists and customers with affordable licensing options.
contains a wide variety of affordable, short, catchy pieces starting at around $18.
is a high end stock music site with great usability. Prices are around $150. (UVic is classified as non-profit).
offers loops to help you build the music to the particular length of your video. In addition, you may use the track multiple times.
You can find royalty-free music within the YouTube editor; however ads may appear in your video.

How to find free music

for free music
If you want to use a popular song, look at the
You can find free music online using the ; please carefully check the license
Try ; please carefully check the license for each song

YouTube and copyright claims

YouTube has software which recognizes and identifies commercial music in videos. If a commercial song is identified—depending on the copyright holder’s claim and how they want to handle the situation—YouTube will do one of three things:

Mute the audio for the entire video
Place embedded ads
Remove the video

The administrator of the main UVic YouTube channel will not post videos that display ads. We also recommend you do not post your own videos which have a “matched third-party content” warning on their videos, regardless of whether ads are appearing (ads could appear later).

There is a process for disputing copyright claims; however, this is time consuming and risky to UVic’s good account standing on YouTube. Visit

YouTube copyright video as explained by puppets

Giving credit

Check the license on the music you use in your video. If credit is required, you may add a slide at the end of the video giving credit to the artist or you may add a line in the YouTube description below the video.