Understanding Copyright

Nikki Andersen

1 Understanding Copyright

Before you begin creating your OER, make sure you have a firm grasp of what copyright means and how applying an open-copyright licence, typically a Creative Commons licence, will affect your work. In Australia, copyright law is set out in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). This is federal legislation and applies throughout Australia.

You’re probably aware with the ‘Fair Dealing for Study and Research’ provision within the Copyright Act. While you can use this provision when creating normal assignments, it doesn’t apply to assignments that will be public and openly licensed.

Most publishers require you to seek permission before reproducing third-party content like images, figures or substantial quotes in works that are publicly available. As such, when creating an OER you can only rely on content with a Creative Commons licence.

Seeking Permission

You will need to seek permission from the copyright holder to use copyright material in an OER. You will also need permission to use openly licensed materials if they have incompatible licences, (for example, combining CC BY-SA and CC BY-NC materials), or if your use falls outside the licence scope, for example adapting CC BY-ND material.

Firstly, check the copyright status and terms and conditions of the material. Many people and companies set out the terms relating to permission to use their copyright material on the site itself. This usually happens in one of three ways:

The material itself may contain information on its permitted uses (there may be an indication near where the content is posted).
The website may have a section entitled ‘Copyright’, ‘permissions’ or similar and will contain copyright and permissions information for material on the site.
The site’s terms and conditions of use will specify how material is used.

Many publishers request you seek permission via online forms. Alternatively, send an email to the copyright owner, outlining how you wish to use the content. Please use and adapt the permission template below.

Resource – Permission Templates

Permission templates for the use of third-party content

Use and adapt this permission template when seeking permission for third party content.

Remember to record all materials you intend to use and any permissions you may have obtained.

Resource – Copyright Tracker Template

Please use the Content Copyright Tracker to keep track of the content you are using in your OER and any permissions you may have sought.

How to use this tracker

The content in your OER must be copyright compliant. This tracker will help you check that all the content in your open resource is safe to use and is compatible with the Creative Commons licence you have chosen for your work.

Please complete the tracker as you work on your assignment.