Canvas Terms of Use

Emory University uses Canvas under the terms of the Internet2 Net+ contract with Instructure. As part of the Internet2 Net+ agreement, Instructure requires users to also accept the terms of use individually.

Instructure has two Terms of Use for Canvas. The applicable Terms of Use for Emory University and its users are those from the Internet2 Net+ contract: https://www.canvaslms.com/policies/terms-of-use-internet2 (need new link, link the words "Internet2 Net+ contract" not the URL).

Intellectual Property in Canvas

Emory's contract with Instructure, the educational technology company that developed the Canvas platform, was negotiated through the Internet2 consortium to provide very specific protections for faculty and student intellectual property and data privacy. Staff from Emory’s General Counsel’s Office and LITS worked to craft this agreement, and the specific protections included in it are also found in many other Internet2 contracts signed by hundreds of higher education institutions and vendors. The Internet2 contracts are seen as model contracts in higher education.

Note “Section 4.2 Your Content” in the Internet2 Net+ Canvas Terms of Use:

Your Content. Except with respect to Your Content, you agree that you have no right or title in or to any Content that appears on or in the Instructure Properties. Instructure does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, you grant Instructure a fully paid, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right (including any moral rights) and license to use, license, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform, and publicly display, Your Content (in whole or in part) for the purposes of operating and providing the Instructure Properties to you and to your other Users. When you as a User post or publish Your Content on or in the Instructure Properties, you represent that you have the authority to grant the aforementioned license to Instructure. Please remember that other Users may search for, see, use, modify, and reproduce any of Your Content that you submit to any “public” area of the Instructure Properties. You warrant that the holder of any worldwide intellectual property right, including moral rights, in Your Content, has completely and effectively waived all such rights and validly and irrevocably granted to you the right to grant the license stated above.

The italicized section above causes the most confusion. The key phrase in this provision is “solely for the purposes of operating and providing the Instructure Properties to you and to your Entity’s other Users.” This is simply stating that faculty and students grant Instructure the right to use the content only to offer the Canvas LMS services back to Emory University faculty and students. Instructure cannot claim ownership nor reuse the content for any purpose other than offering the service to Emory University.

Instructure cannot make any changes to these terms that would adversely affect your rights without prior approval.