Copyright and teaching
Knowing when and how to use copyright material for teaching
The use of third-party copyright material for educational purposes is permitted through special statutory and voluntary education licences and exceptions within the Copyright Act 1968. Different licences and exceptions apply depending on how the material is being used and whether you are using:
- literary works (such as books, book chapters, journal articles)
- artistic works (such as images, photographs, figures)
- TV and radio broadcasts (including webcasts of broadcasts)
- multimedia (including PowerPoint presentations)
- video works (including DVDs and online streaming videos)
- music and sound recordings
Sharing learning material with students
Published learning material and readings - such as journal articles, ebooks and scanned book chapters - should only be accessed by students using OneSearch, or within the Learning Management System via Unit Readings.
Do not provide access to copyright material by uploading it to other systems such as Dropbox, MS Teams, or sending it via email. Students should be reminded not to share copyrighted material with others beyond the LMS.
Entire copies of journal articles or other resources (like case law) from subscription databases, such as ProQuest or LexisNexis, cannot be shared directly as uploads to the LMS, nor can they be included in print unit/course readers. You must use Unit Readings to provide a copyright compliant link to the reading.
Print unit readers should only contain:
- Material that you have developed and own the copyright in (e.g. original lab manuals; lecture notes)
- Copyright-free, open access or openly licensed material (e.g. open access articles with Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY licences).
Please see the Copyright at UWA webpage for information on how to locate open access, openly licensed resources for teaching.
The Librarian Support Team can help you to locate or obtain course materials that can be shared with students via Unit Readings.
Licences
- Education licences
Assisting persons with a disability
- Exceptions to assist people with disabilities
- Fair dealing for the purpose of access by a person with a disability
- Use of copyright material by organisations assisting persons with a disability
Text works
Different copyright limits apply depending on the original material type – a print book, an ebook or a website. Before including copyright material in your PowerPoint presentations, or uploading copyright material to your LMS unit, check the copyright compliance guidelines for the LMS (at the bottom of this page).
- Print books and journal articles
- Ebooks and online articles
- Quotes and short extracts
- Text from websites
- Your own published work
- Out-of-print or unavailable works
Artistic works
An artistic work may be an image, photo, drawing, graph, table, or figure.
- Images from print sources
- Images from online sources
Multimedia and presentations
- Presentations
Broadcasts
- Broadcasts (including webcasts of broadcasts)
Video works
- DVDs
- Using YouTube videos
- Creating and uploading your own videos
- Streaming services like Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime
- Screening a film for non-educational purposes
Music and sound recordings
- The Tertiary Music Agreement
- Commercial sound recordings - using and sharing for educational or university purposes
- Print music and sound recordings - performing
- Student and staff musical performances - recording and sharing
- Music performance and reproduction not covered by the Tertiary Music Agreement
Learning Management System
- Copyright compliance guidelines for the Learning Management System (LMS)
- Compliance checklist
Information on this page has been adapted with permission from the University of Sydney. This information is provided as general information only and is not intended to be comprehensive.
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