Copyright is:

• a collection of rights intended to provide copyright owners with protection for their own material while allowing others to access it for legitimate public good.
• a form of intellectual property that protects a variety of literary, artistic, musical and dramatic works.

Copyright does not protect ideas, only the form or expression. Works must have a sufficient level of originality to be copyrighted.

The University has a legal requirement for copyright compliance under the Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) for its activities around teaching, research and more.  Copyright and IP inform policy and procedure at the University, including our:

• IP Policy and Procedure
• Copyright Compliance Policy and Guidelines
• Open Access Guideline
• Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property Protocol.

Support for copyright at the University is provided by the Copyright Advisor.

Licensing is an agreement between an owner (licensor) and a user (licensee) that provides permission to use material or a product within a defined area. Licences work within copyright, can be paid or free, and usually include restrictions around usage of the material or product.

Examples of paid licensing:

• the Library's journal databases
• Australian Standards
• Shutterstock images

Example of free licensing:

• Creative Commons
• GNU General Public License
• Pixabay image licence

Third-party copyright is material which is not your own work, and can include:

• Photographs you did not take
• Sections of text that have been previously published in a journal, book or document
• Long quotations from other works, even where properly attributed
• Material for which a patent was granted
• Models, plans and diagrams
• Maps and land/ordnance surveys
• Images of paintings (including portraits) and other artworks
• Figures and tables taken from other publications or online
• Video and audio clips (including film, animation and sound recordings)
• Music scores
• Computer software and code.

It may also include material which was written or created by you but, because of an agreement you have entered into with a publisher or other party, you do not hold the copyright (e.g. a journal article or conference paper).

It doesn’t matter whether the material comes from a print/physical source or from an online/digital one – copyright still applies. In most cases copyright lasts 70 years from the death of the creator.

There is often some confusion around what is in the 'public domain'. It does not simply mean that material is publicly available - most material found online, for example, is very much still in copyright. True public domain is specifically where material is not protected by copyright. This means that you can copy, distribute, display, perform, modify and use public domain works  for any purpose, even without attribution.

Creative Commons has two public domain tools:

• Creative Commons Zero (CC0) – where the creator has dedicated the work to the public domain, relinquishing its copyright. This tool has legal backing and functions as a licence in countries where there is no public domain.

• Public Domain Mark (PDM) – the work is not in copyright due to age, function, or for other reasons. This tool, unlike CC0, has no legal backing, and is reliant on correct identification of public domain works by users.

Our guide to public domain tools (PDF) has more information on applying CC0 dedication and using public domain works.

Looking for public domain resources? Check out our page on Free and open resources.

Most material is copyright unless otherwise noted. Making third party material available without permission risks infringement. Material found online can be especially problematic (e.g. memes).

To avoid infringement, copyright material should be used:

• under an exception in the Copyright Act
• under licence
• with permission from the copyright owner
• following any requirements of the above.

For more information, see the pages for Students, Teaching, Research and Open licensing.

Need to keep track of copyright materials that you're using? Access our Copyright Checker spreadsheet.

‘Attribution’ is an umbrella term around providing source information for, or credit to, a resource and its creators. Attribution can be simple or quite detailed, depending on the requirements of the copyright owner or how material is being used. It’s therefore important to always check what ‘attribution’ means for every resource you’d like to use.

Referencing is a specialised form of attribution that has differing requirements (‘rules’) based on the referencing style. While requirements vary by style, the basics are usually the same – what the resource is, who created it and when, and where/how it is accessible.

Attribution/referencing is a requirement in Australia under 'moral rights' in the Copyright Act (see below).

There may be times you will need to use a mix of referencing and other attribution elements. For example, where you use Creative Commons (CC)-licensed material in a thesis or publication, you may need to follow a particular referencing style but still provide the licence and usage information needed for the CC attribution.

Best practice

• Double-check what type/level of attribution is needed for your use of third-party copyright material. Where referencing is your required attribution, make sure that you follow the referencing style guidelines.
• Attribution/referencing alone may not be enough to use copyright material – you may still need to seek permission from the copyright owner (see Using copyright material above).
• Hyperlinking text may be required as part of the attribution (see the examples in the PDF below).
• Looking for resources that don’t need attribution? Check our Free and open-licensed resources page.

Learn more about attribution vs. referencing (PDF).

Generally the creator of a work would own the copyright in that work, but there are some exceptions:

• employment and work-for-hire
• commissions and/or general contracts
• Crown (government) copyright
• performers rights

Copyright usually lasts 70 years from death of author, and can be transferred, sold, or leased.

In Australia there is no formal registration process - adding a statement such as '© [Name Year]' is good practice, e.g. © A. Smith 2022.

Under the University's IP Policy, course materials and works produced by professional staff are generally owned by the University. Scholarly and creative works are generally owned by the author/creator. Check the Policy for more information.

In Australia, creators of works have moral rights under Part IX of the Copyright Act.

A creator's moral rights include:

• to maintain the integrity of a work
• attribution/acknowledgement as author (see Attribution vs. referencing above for more)
• to not  be falsely attributed to an unauthorised version of the work

Moral rights cannot be waived.

For more information on moral rights see the following sites:

• Arts Law Centre of Australia
• Australian Copyright Council

The importance of copyright to the University as a whole flows through to staff.

Course coordinators have an individual responsibility for copyright in their courses.

Researchers need to be aware of copyright as it can impact their research processes and publications.

Professional staff can also be impacted by copyright and IP in their work practices.

To learn more, access the Basics of copyright for staff (PDF).

Students are able to use copyright materials in the course of studying and conducting research. The University's Student Conduct Rule and Copyright Compliance Policy require that all students should respect copyright.

Copyright also applies to and protects works that students create, including assessments and theses.

To learn more, access the Copyright for Students page.

Access provisions in the Copyright Act for persons with a disability have been simplified and extended to provide more equitable access to copyright material:

1. fair dealing for the purpose of access by persons with a disability (S113E), and
2. use of copyright material by organisations assisting persons with a disability (S113F).

The key implications are:

• There is more scope for both copying and format conversion of material if the material is for the purpose of providing an accessible version to a person with a disability, and the dealing is ‘fair'.
• It may now be possible to circumvent Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) if you are relying on disability copying exceptions. This means you may be able to make copies of DVDs, eBooks, etc., that were previously protected by a technological barrier.

For more information about these access provisions, please contact the Copyright Advisor