Information about
copyright
Copyright in Australia is governed by the
Australian Copyright
Act 1968 (the Act). This legislation gives the owner of
copyright in literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and
some other types of material including sound recordings, films and
broadcasts, exclusive rights to use these works in certain ways.
The types of uses include the right to reproduce, or copy, a work,
to publish, to perform in public and to communicate the work to
the public via electronic means - including making it available
online or sending via email. This means that permission needs to
be obtained from the owner of copyright before anyone can do any
of these acts.
Copyright ownership
The creator or author of copyright material will be the owner of that material, unless they have entered into an agreement to the contrary. At Swinburne there is an intellectual property policy governing ownership of copyright material created through the university. Under the policy students retain ownership of copyright in the material they create in pursuance of their studies. Copyright material created by staff members during the course of their employment is owned by the university. There are also some specific situations where both staff and student work created through the university will be owned by the university. For more information you can visit the copyright ownership web page or refer to the policy.
Copyright exceptions
Copyright law contains a number of exceptions to the rights of owners which ensures that the community has access to information and cultural material. These exceptions allow certain uses of material for educational purposes and certain personal uses including fair dealing.
Use of copyright material for educational
purposes
The Act contains two statutory
licences, which allow educational institutions to make limited use
of copyright material for educational purposes without having to
obtain permission from the owner. These are Part
VB, which covers the use of print and graphic material and Part
VA, which covers televison and radio broadcasts. The universities
pay the collecting societies Copyright
Agency Ltd (CAL) and Screenrights
for the use of these licences. The collecting societies conduct
regular surveys of copying and
communication undertaken by educational institutions under these
licences.
A number of Australian universities have
entered a commercial music licence agreement with the music collecting
societies APRA,
AMCOS,
PPCA and ARIA,
which allows certain limited use of sound recordings for educational
purposes.
In addition to the rights available in
the Act to make certain uses without obtaining permission, educational
institutions often enter commercial agreements with copyright owners
to use certain material. Most university libraries subscribe to
a wide range of online databases containing text and image material,
which means they have the permission of copyright owners to use
that material under the terms of the licence agreements.
For more information about copyright see:
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