Journals or Periodical Publications
Periodical publications include journal articles and newspaper articles and are literary works.
Copyright in Periodical Publications
The Copyright in periodical publications is generally the same as all other literary works. That is that copyright owners of literary works have control over the rights to do the following in relation to their works:
- reproduce the work in material form;
- publish the work;
- perform the work in public;
- to communicate the work to the public;
- make an adaptation of the work, and
- do any of these acts in relation to an adaptation of the work.
These rights are generally owned by the author or creator of the work, however, there may be agreements made by the author and the publication may alter this. For example: magazines and newspaper journalists or other employees will be divided between the employer and the publication. The creator holds the right to reproduce the work in hardcopy form other than for the purposes of the publication they are employed by. The publication/publisher will hold the rights to copy, reproduce or communicate the work (Gerdsen, p. 9). Authors should clarify with the publication and publisher the copyright ownership before publication.
Who Owns Copyright?
The copyright owner of newspaper content depends on when the material was published as the Copyright Act has been changed relating to print media employees and split ownership. Exceptions also apply for freelance and independent journalists.
What Can You Copy?
The whole or part of an article contained in any issue of a periodical publication (including newspapers and magazines but possibly not conference proceedings; additionally, abstracts are literary works in their own right) may be reproduced. The whole or part of two or more articles contained in any issue of a periodical publication may be copied if those articles relate to the same subject matter, e.g. two articles about the Wik case from a legal journal. The Copyright Act does not define what 'the same subject matter' means. As a guide it would probably not be permissible to copy more than one article in a law journal simply because all the articles related to law. If there were two or more articles on a particular legal topic, it would be permissible to copy each of these.
Students and Researchers rely on the Fair Dealing Provisions to copy articles for the purposes of research and study.
Teaching staff can copy for educational purposes under the Statutory Licences.
Photos in Newspapers
You are allowed to copy an entire photograph if it accompanies or explains accompanying text. If it does not accompany text, you need to determine if it has in fact been published separately from the newspaper and if so if it is available separately at a reasonable commercial price in a reasonable time. Some newspaper publishers have image banks of photographs and other images that appear in their newspapers and these can be requested separately, sometimes at a reasonable price and quickly. In such cases you will not be able to copy the entire photo. You can copy 10 per cent for educational or research purposes, but this will probably not be useful. A copy may be available in hard copy or electronic form via the Library.
Attribution
It is now a legal requirement to attribute the source to the copyright owner, of which there may be more than one. This applies to both hard copying and electronic copying and communications. See moral rights for information. If the copyright owner is unknown, indicate 'Copyright owner unknown. All reasonable attempts made to identify. If you are the copyright owner or know who they are please advise us'.
Electronic Periodicals (Online Journals, E-books, Databases and Text Services)
The University of Melbourne provides access for staff and students to a variety of electronic publications. Access and copying of articles from these resources is determined by the conditions of the licence agreement with the service provider. In most cases, staff and students are able to view, browse, link to and print the works; however, they are not permitted to create electronic copies of the work. The limits and extent to which staff and students may copy works in these resources will fall outside of the provisions of the Part VB licence as they are covered by their own licence agreement. Contact the Copyright Office for more information about licence agreements for electronic databases.
See Copyright: A User's Guide by Trevor Gerdsen for more information.