Copyright essentials

This section aims to give a very quick overview of copyright for Curtin staff and students, as follows:

Obligations on Curtin staff and students
Copying for research or study, criticism or review
Copying for teaching purposes

Obligations on Curtin staff and students

Under Australian law and through international conventions and treaties, a wide variety of material is protected by copyright, including:

literary works (e.g. novels, poems, essays, books, journals, newspapers);
dramatic works (e.g. plays and screenplays etc);
musical works (e.g. sheet-music);
artistic works (e.g. paintings, sculpture, cartoons, photographs, illustrations etc);
audio-visual material (e.g. sound recordings; films - including animations and moving images; radio and television broadcasts).

[For the purposes of copyright, computer programs are classified as "literary works".]

Material in all formats is covered: hardcopy, electronic, on the internet, etc.

Copyright owners have certain rights in relation to their works, including the rights to reproduce the work (e.g. photocopy, print, download or scan it) and communicate it to the public (e.g. make it available online or by electronic transmission). There are also what are known as "moral rights".

Curtin University is subject to the provisions of Commonwealth legislation that deals with copyright and moral rights. All Curtin staff and students are expected to adhere to the University's policies, procedures and requirements in relation to these matters. Students should familiarize themselves with the Student Rights and Responsibilities section of the Curtin website. Staff should be familiar with the University's Copyright Procedures and Ownership of Intellectual Property Policy. These provisions apply even if you are using your personally owned equipment. Those copying material in locations outside of Australia will also need to make themselves aware of the copyright legislative requirements of that location.

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Copying for research or study, criticism or review

Under the "fair dealing" provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, staff and students can copy literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work and audio-visual material without the permission of the copyright owner, provided their copying is for the purpose of research or study, criticism or review.

Normally you should only make a single copy, for your own individual use. You should only make multiple copies if your purpose is "criticism or review" - e.g. if you are making a tutorial presentation which involves commenting on the work and you need to provide all the students in the tutorial with a copy of an extract from it. (Students preparing higher degree theses containing copyright material who are required to make multiple copies - see Higher degree theses.) Multiple copying for distribution to students CANNOT be done under the fair dealing provisions - see separate section below on Copying for teaching purposes.

Only limited copying is permitted, e.g. one article in a periodical (more than one if the articles are required for the same course of study or research project), 10% of the pages or one chapter of a book. An artistic work can be copied in its entirety. For audio-visual material (e.g. sound recordings, film/video clips) the limits are less clear - you should contact the Legal and Compliance Office if you want to copy more than a small amount.

Copying for non-educational purposes is NOT permitted under these provisions.

If the material you want to copy for research or study, criticism or review is Curtin material or is "out of copyright", or if you have permission from the copyright owner, you do not need to rely on the fair dealing provisions.

If the material is covered by contractual agreement (this is the case with most software and electronic resources, including the Library's e-books, e-journals and databases), you must abide by the terms of the contract.

Unless authorized by the copyright owner, you must not copy software on University computers or personally owned computers using University network facilities.

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Copying for teaching purposes

Curtin participates in two statutory license schemes to facilitate the copying of copyright material for students for teaching purposes: the Part VA license covering broadcasts and the Part VB license covering print and graphic material.

The University pays the relevant copyright collecting societies for these licenses. Staff and students do not need to pay or seek permission to copy under these licenses; however, conditions apply:

The copying must be for non-commercial educational purposes
Copies must only be provided to Curtin staff and students
There are limits on the amount and type of material that can be copied (e.g. for a book still in print, one chapter or 10% whichever is the greater; for a journal, one article per issue of the journal; for others, and circumstances in which you can copy more, see the Limits section of this site)
There are prescribed notices which must be displayed on equipment capable of being used for such copying (e.g. photocopiers, VCRs, computers)
There are also electronic warning notices which must be used in connection with electronic copies. [Part VB notice] [Part VA notice and labels]

Due to the more stringent license conditions relating to online (web) communication, generally Curtin websites cannot be used to communicate material under the statutory licenses. The Library's Electronic Reserve system must be used instead.

There are some special provisions in the statutory licenses relating to copying "insubstantial portions" (e.g. a quote, paragraph, etc up to one or two pages) and preview copies of broadcasts.

While in most cases it is easier for teaching staff to rely on the statutory licenses to copy material for their students, in some cases they must not rely on the licenses:

You must have permission from the copyright owner to copy material not made available to the public (e.g. letters and material you obtained in confidence or pursuant to a contract of employment.
You must have permission from the student to copy a Curtin student's work.
If the material you wish to copy is covered by contractual agreement (this is the case with most electronic resources, including the Library's e-books, e-journals and databases), you must abide by the terms of the contract.

You should also note the following circumstances when you may copy outside the statutory licenses:

Curtin material,
material which is "out of copyright" or
material for which you have permission from the copyright owner.

Staff including copyright resources in teaching materials (handouts, readers, CD-ROMs, websites, PowerPoint lectures) should consult the section on Copying checklists.

Be particularly careful about copying the following for teaching purposes:

Material from the internet Material on the Internet is covered by copyright; it is not "copyright free". Some Internet sites stipulate conditions on copying their content (check for homepage headings such as "Copyright", "Terms of Use", or "About this site"). If so, you must abide by them or seek an exemption from them from the copyright owner.
Note: if you cite or link to the url of a website, this is not considered "copying" and may be preferable to downloading/ printing. But don't "deep link", i.e. don't link in such a way as to give the impression that you or Curtin is the copyright owner of the material you have linked to.

Artwork For copyright purposes, "artwork" refers not only to drawings, paintings, posters, photographs, cartoons, etc. but also diagrams, illustrations, maps, etc.

Music The Part VA license covers music or musical elements within radio and television broadcasts only, while the Part VB license covers sheet-music only. Some other copying of recorded music is permitted under the provisions of the collective Music Licence for inclusion in teaching resources and for use at University events - see Music licence.

Commercial videos, DVDs etc While you may be able to play pre-recorded DVDs or videos in class, you CANNOT copy them (except in very exceptional circumstances) without the prior written approval of the copyright owners.

Further information on Copyright essentials

The "Copyright Do's and Don'ts" brochure provides a handy summary of what is and isn't permissible with regard to the use of copyright materials. There are separate brochures to meet the needs of Curtin students or staff - see http://www.copyright.curtin.edu.au/resources/

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