Copyright guidance for teaching staff

Copying more than an insubstantial portion

UOW's licence for educational purposes

Australian Copyright Law mandates that educational institutions pay annual licence fees to use certain copyright material for educational purposes, without requiring permission from the copyright owner.

Under a statutory licence scheme, UOW staff can copy and communicate limited amounts of copyright material to students or other staff, for a UOW educational course. UOW Library also enables access to a range of copyrighted content for teaching purposes via commercial licences.

The licence fees that UOW pays to Collecting Societies are designed to support the payment of royalties to copyright owners.

The collecting societies include:

• Screenrights, with whom UOW has a licence covering certain use of television and radio broadcasts.
• Copyright Agency (CA), with whom UOW has a licence covering certain use of print and graphic material.
• a group of music-based companies
  • Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA)
  • Australian Performing Right Association (APRA)
  • Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society Limited (AMCOS)
  • Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Limited (PPCA), with whom UOW has a licence that covers a range of music uses.

UOW’s statutory licence allows you to copy or communicate copyright material as indicated in the table below. You can only copy more than this if you have written permission from the copyright owner.

In all cases, you must ensure the material being copied and communicated is from a legitimate source or legitimately acquired. If you suspect the material (such as a YouTube video) was uploaded by someone other than the copyright owner, you should not use it in your teaching material.

You must also attribute the author and source of the material.

How much can you copy?

These same limitations exist for Subject Readings material and when requesting copies via Document Delivery.

Using Open Educational Resources (OERs)

If the material you are copying or sharing is from Creative Commons or Open Access sources, you can copy/share more than the amounts outlined in the table above. 

Remember to:

• carefully read and follow any attribution and usage rules for a specific OER. Always check the site’s licensing or ‘terms of use’ page.
• find material from legitimate sources e.g. a video uploaded by the creator to their official YouTube channel.

For help finding OERs see the Open Educational Resources guide.

What are educational purposes?

You may copy and/or communicate copyright material to students or staff. This includes copying and/or communicating for the administrative purposes of the course, including by professional staff. However, you cannot provide the material to the public, or promote the material through marketing or other commercial activities.

Attribution and Moral Rights

When you copy or communicate copyright material, you must adequately attribute the author and source of the material. By doing this you acknowledge the Moral Rights of the copyright owner. Moral rights allow creators to take certain actions to preserve and protect their connection with their work. Although Moral Rights are not considered to be ‘economic rights’, they are enforceable in the courts.

In relation to authors, Moral Rights mandate:

• a right of attribution of authorship; or
• a right not to have authorship falsely attributed; or
• a right of integrity of authorship.

In relation to performers, Moral Rights mandate:

• a right of attribution of performership; or
• a right not to have performership falsely attributed; or
• a right of integrity of performership.

See the UOW Referencing & Citing guide.

Disability Access Exceptions

The Copyright Act provides exceptions that allow for copying to be carried out to assist students with a disability.

Universities can search the Copyright Agency's Master Copy Catalogue to find works in alternative formats. If the material isn’t commercially available in the format required by a student, and with the appropriate features they require, the university can make accessible format copies for them. The Student Accessibility and Inclusion team can help with this, and other services.

Copying audiovisual material

You are permitted to use video materials in your teaching. For example, you can link or embed in Moodle or PowerPoint, make a YouTube playlist, or create short clips. UOW pays Screenrights an annual licence fee which allows staff to copy (reproduce) and communicate (convey electronically) limited amounts of copyright material to UOW students and staff for educational purposes.

You should ensure that:

• any teaching materials you make available are only accessible to UOW students and staff (e.g. in Moodle)
• videos you provide are either links, or legal copies from a legitimate source e.g. uploaded by the copyright owner to a legitimate and official YouTube channel
• you appropriately attribute any embedded, downloaded or edited videos you provide.

Permitted use with attribution

In most cases, it is legal to show or stream a video in class, or to link to a video on the web. The table below shows different ways video content from various sources can be used for educational purposes, as long as you also attribute them.

Copying for exams

An exception in the Copyright Act allows you to copy and communicate copyright material if the material is copied/communicated:

• as part of the question to be answered in an examination; or
• in answer to such a question.

Copyright material is defined as “anything in which copyright subsists”, and there is no limit on the amount that can be copied or communicated when relying on this exception. There is no definition of “exam” in the Copyright Act. It is likely that the exception would be found to apply not only to end-of-semester exams, but also to tests/exams conducted during a teaching period, including take-home exams.

Copying material for student reading lists

The amounts you can copy under UOW's statutory licence also apply to materials on your reading list.

All third-party copyright material that you would like your students to read as part of their course subject readings should be added via the Subject Readings tool, which integrates with Moodle. This allows the Library to help you maintain copyright compliance.

See the Subject Readings guide for staff.

UOW ownership of teaching materials

UOW’s Intellectual Property Policy specifies the conditions for which UOW will retain ownership over certain types of material produced by UOW employees. These include commissioned work, creative work, scholarly work, and some course and educational material.

For more information on your Intellectual Property rights, contact the Innovation and Commercial Research Unit.

Copyright module for staff

The Digital Literacy Support for Staff Moodle site includes a module on Copyright, which will enable you to:

• explain copyright legislation as defined within the Australian context, and be able to locate information on imminent changes
• summarise Creative Commons Licences
• apply Creative Commons Licences to your own creative works
• locate appropriately licensed images, video, and audio for use in your own creative works
• locate Public Domain images, video, and audio for use in your own creative works
• appropriately attribute Creative Commons and Public Domain images, video, and audio.