Students' Introduction to Copyright
As a student you will be using copyright material in the course of your study and research. Copyright also applies and protects works that you create as a student such as your essays, assignments and theses. Therefore, it is important that you understand what copyright is and how it works, as well as how you can use copyright material for your research and studies without infringing copyright. The University requires that all staff and students respect copyright and do not infringe it. The University takes any breach or infringement of the Copyright Act seriously and disciplinary action may be taken against students found breaching copyright.
- Using Copyright Material
- Overview of Copyright
- Avoiding Infringement
- Personal Use of Copyright Material
- Copyright & Your Work
- Copyright & Your Thesis -a guide from the Copyright Office (b&w version for printing)
- More Information
Copyright Dos |
Copyright Don'ts |
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Using Copyright Material for Your Study and Research
You will need to read Overview of Copyright if you are unfamiliar with the basic concepts of copyright.
Copyright applies to all material, for example, journal articles, books, films, music etc. Copyright usually belongs to the person who created the work and they have the right to control how their work is used. Just because you owe a copy of a book or song does not mean that you own the copyright and can do what you like with it. Material where the copyright is owned by another person is often called 3rd party copyright material. For more information see: Overview of Copyright.
Copyright affects many of the activities that you carry out as part of your study and research. Copyright applies when you:
- photocopy or scan journal articles, books or other material from the library collections,
- download or print information from the web,
- include substantial extracts of other people's works in your essays or assignments, e.g. an image to illustrate a point that you are making.
There are provisions in the Copyright Act that allow you do this without infringing copyright. These provisions are called Fair Dealing for Research and Study. Fair Dealing for Research & Study allows you to reproduce 10% or 1 chapter (which ever is greatest) of textual material, e.g. books, sheet music or a play for your own research or study. You are also permitted to reproduce 1 article from a journal issue or 2 or more articles if they are on the same topic. Under certain circumstances, it may be possible to reproduce the whole work or other types of material, such as sound recordings & films. Conditions and restrictions do apply. It is essential that you study and become familiar with the Fair Dealing provisions as they are important for using copyright material for your research & study.
Avoiding Infringement
You can avoid copyright infringement when using other's people work or material as part of your research & study. You can use material without breaching or infringing copyright if:
- You created the work and therefore own the copyright
- Copyright has expired
- The work is in the public domain either because copyright has expired; the copyright owner has allowed certain uses as part of the Terms & Conditions, e.g. Wikipedia; or the work has been licenced under Creative Commons
- You are copying or scanning the work under Fair Dealing for Research & Study and have observed the limits
- You are using an insubstantial portion of the work
- You have the copyright owner's permission
Copyright and the Web
Copyright also applies to websites. Just because you can access material on the web free of charge does not mean that you can download or print it out and do what you want with it. Some websites choose to make their material freely available with very few copyright restrictions. Check the Terms & Conditions of the website to see what is allowed and what copyright restrictions apply. You must abide by any terms & conditions that appear on the website. If no terms or conditions are specified then you may only use the website as would be permitted under provisions in the Copyright Act, such as Fair Dealing.
Be aware that some material available from websites may be infringing copies, i.e. it may be on the website without the copyright owner's permission. Do not use infringing material, otherwise you yourself will be infringing copyright and may be liable.
Where possible, link to or bookmark, a website as there is no copyright attached to linking or bookmarking. Do not link to infringing sites, or direct others to infringing sites, as this would be a breach of copyright.
You can use material from the web for your research and study under Fair Dealing, but you must always acknowledge the source and properly reference it as you would for print material.
For more information see Internet/Web Publishing
Music, Movies and Software
Many websites have music, movies & software that can be downloaded for free. Most of these websites use peer-2-peer (p2p) software to make the downloads quick and easy. Unfortunately, many of these movies, music & software are illegal copies. By downloading illegal material, you are breaching copyright and could be liable to disciplinary action from the University (if you use University equipment or networks) as well as legal action from the copyright owner.
Therefore, you should be careful if you are downloading music, movies or software, particularly free material.
- Check the website carefully to make sure that it is a legitimate website. Read the Terms & Conditions - legitimate sites will have them - these should clearly state that the website is either the copyright owner or has permission to make the material available. They will explain what you may or may not do with material on the website.
- Use a reputable website such as iTunes, and abide by any contractual conditions of the website. For example, you can download a copy of the iTunes software for your own personal use but you are not permitted to lend or sell the software to other people. In addition, music that you download from iTunes is your personal use.
There are a number of ways to access these materials for research and study purposes without infringing copyright.
- Under certain circumstances, you may be able to copy music, movies & software under Fair Dealing for Research & Study.
- Software - The University may have a licence for a particular piece of software, e.g. Endnote that can be downloaded by students for free. Alternatively, copies of the software may be available for use in libraries or IT Labs. More Information.
- Movies & TV Programs - The University has a licence that allows University staff to record TV broadcasts for educational purposes. Your lecturer may have a copy that they can make available for you. Alternatively, copies of these broadcasts are available from the ERC Library and streamed via the Off Air Recording Service. The ERC Library also has an extensive collection of movies & TV programs available on DVD.
- Music - The University has a licence that allows University staff to record radio broadcasts for educational purposes. Your lecturer may have a copy that they can make available for you. The Music Library has an extensive collection of music for students' research & study. The University also has a Music Licence that allows students to record and perform music as part of their course of study.
Personal Use
The Copyright Act allows you to make copies of material that you own for your own personal use, for example copying a CD that you own to your own iPod. Not all types of material that you own can be reproduced and conditions do apply.
You are also permitted to record TV & radio broadcasts for viewing or listening to at a more convenient time.
For more information, see Personal Use.
Copyright and Your Work
Any material that you create as a student as part of your study and research, e.g. essays, assignments or your thesis is protected by copyright and you will most likely be the copyright owner. This applies not just to any text that you might create but photographs that you take, music that you compose, software that you design, films that you make etc.
Copyright applies automatically to anything fixed in a material, it does not apply to ideas. You do not have to do anything to trigger copyright, and copyright does not have to be registered. It is good practice to include a copyright statement such as (C) Fred Smith 2007 as this clearly identifies you as the copyright owner. Most of the work that you create for your studieswill be unpublished work and treated as such.
As a copyright owner, you will be able to exercise exclusive rights relating to the use of that work including, for example, the right to publish or make your work publicly available. If you share joint author in a paper, you will need agreement from the other author/s. Your copyright in a work that you create may also be affected by funding or publishing agreement. For example, if your research is funded by a grant - a condition of the grant may be that copyright is owned by or shared with the funding body, it which case you might need their agreement before you publish or communicate the work. You may also choose to publish your research in a journal, and as a condition the publisher may ask you to sign over copyright in the work to them.
If you choose to publish or distribute your work then you will need to get permission for any third party copyright material that you have included in your work, as fair dealing will not apply once the work has been published. Be aware that making a work available on a website is considered publishing so you will need to either have permission for, or remove, any third party copyright material in the work.
For more information, see Melbourne Research Office's IP webpage.
More Information
- Introduction to Copyright -a guide from the Copyright Office (b&w version for printing)
- Copyright & Your Thesis -a guide from the Copyright Office (b&w version for printing)
- Fast-Find Index - an A-Z glossary of copyright terms and topics
- OAKLAW Copyright Guide for Research Students
- Contact the Copyright Office