Copyright for teaching

Managing material for educational purposes

This information is for Macquarie teaching staff, learning designers and unit convenors.

Australian copyright law allows teachers to use other people’s material for educational purposes without having to seek the permission of the copyright owner. Different rules apply depending on the:

type of material that is being used, eg a text work (journal article, book chapter), artistic work (photograph, drawing), film (DVD, YouTube), sound recording (CD, podcast) or broadcast
what is done with the material, eg copied, communicated and/or performed to students.

There are a number of ways to manage copyright without having to worry about what is permitted under copyright law.

Download our short guide to managing copyright.

Where these tips don’t apply to your use, see below for what is permitted under copyright law.

Teachers can copy and communicate text works for educational purposes under a statutory licence at section 113P Copyright Act (formerly known as the Part VB licence).

A communication of text works occurs when material is emailed or made available online such as on the University's learning management system/intranet or other password protected online space.

Access

Access to all text material uploaded online must be password protected to ensure that only students and/staff of the University can access the material for their educational purposes.

Copying Limits

Teachers can only copy a "reasonable portion" of text material being:

10% or 1 chapter of a book (whichever is greater).
10% of the words on a website or from a CD Rom. Determining 10% of the words on a website can sometimes be impossible. If this is the case, it is good practice to only take what you need for the educational purpose.
One article in a journal, more than one article if on the same subject matter (including articles from online publications such as e-journals, e-books or e-newspapers).

A teacher can exceed the copying limits (i.e. a whole book or entire play) where the work:

has not been separately published; or
is not commercially available within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price.

In all cases, only copy what you need for the educational purpose.

Labelling/Attribution

Text material copied under the statutory licence for educational use at section 113P of the Copyright Act should be labelled with the name of the author and copyright owner (if different to the author), where the material was copied from and when it was copied.

e.g. copied under section 113P of the Copyright Act. Rust, Niki. The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/polar-bear-invasion-how-climate-change-is-making-human-wildlife-conflicts-worse-111654, February 2019

Uploading book chapters and articles to iLearn

The University does not permit staff to upload material directly to iLearn. There are various copyright compliance matters that must be considered before copied book chapters and journal articles can be uploaded to online platforms such as iLearn.

The Library’s Unit Readings service manages these compliance obligations. The service is open to all teaching staff to ensure reading materials are available to Macquarie University students in a timely and compliant manner. The Copyright for Unit Readings FAQs also provides useful information.

It is important to note that content that is licensed by the library should be linked to from iLearn and not copied and stored on iLearn. Making local copies of content on iLearn is not permitted by licensing and copyright agreements that the University has in place. If you require assistance on how to link to library resource, please contact your Faculty Librarian.

Teachers can copy and communicate artistic works for educational purposes under a statutory licence at section 113P of the Copyright Act (formerly known as the Part VA licence).

A communication of an artistic work occurs when material is emailed or made available online such as on the University's learning management system/intranet or other password protected online space.

Access

Access to all artistic works uploaded online must be password protected to ensure that only students and/staff of the University can access the material for their educational purposes.

Copying Limits

There are no specific copying limits under the section 113P statutory licence for artistic works. However, you are only permitted to copy what is required for the educational purpose.

Labelling/Attribution

Artistic material copied under the section 113P statutory licence should be labelled with the name of the author and copyright owner (if different to the author), where the material was copied from and the date that the copy was made.

e.g. Copied under section 113P of the Copyright Act - B, Stanley, www.ozmusicandart.com, July 2014

Screening broadcasts during class

Teachers can screen broadcasts in class for educational purposes without having to seek the permission of the copyright owner. This is permitted under a special copyright exception comprised in s28 of the Copyright Act.

This includes playing broadcasts from online catch-up services directly to the students during class. This exception does not apply to copying broadcast content.

Copying broadcasts

Teachers can copy and communicate radio and television programs for educational purposes under a statutory licence at section 113P of the Copyright Act (formerly known as the Part VA licence).

This licence covers the following broadcasts:

any off-air TV or radio broadcasts (free-to-air and pay TV channels); and
podcasts/webcasts of programs previously broadcast on a free-to-air channel.

The licence does not cover:

podcasts/ webcasts of programs previously broadcast on a pay TV channel; and
pirate copies of broadcast content.

Access

Access to all broadcasts uploaded online must be password protected to ensure that only students and staff of the University can access the material for their educational purposes.

Copying limits

There are no specific copying limits under the section 113P statutory licence for broadcasts. However, you are only permitted to copy what is required for the educational purpose.

Labelling/Attribution

Broadcasts copied under the section 113P statutory licence should be labelled with the name of the program, the broadcaster and the date that the copy was made. If the copy is a webcast or podcast of a previously broadcast program, the URL should also be included.

e.g. Copied under section 113P of the Copyright Act 1968
'Foreign Correspondent', ABC, May 2014

e.g. Coped under section 113P of the Copyright Act 1968
'Catalyst', ABC, https://www.youtube.com/user/ABCTVCatalyst, May 2014

Playing music during class

Teachers can play sound recordings (music, podcasts etc) in class for educational purposes without having to seek the permission of the copyright owner. This is permitted under a special copyright exception comprised in s28 of the Copyright Act.

This includes playing sound recordings from online sources, MP3 copies or from a CD.

This exception does not apply to the copying of sound recordings. See information below on copying this type of content.

Copying music

Teachers can copy and communicate (email, upload online) sound recordings in all formats (MP3, cassette, CDs) for educational purposes under a national sector licence with all Australian music collecting societies (AMCOS, APRA, PPCA and ARIA). All copies must be from legitimate sources of music.

Access

Access to all copies of music uploaded online must be password protected to ensure that only students and staff of the University can access the material for their educational purposes.

Copying limits

There are no specific copying limits under the licence. However, you are only permitted to copy what is required for educational purposes.

Labelling/Attribution

All copies must contain the following notice and information:

Notice - "This recording has been made by Macquarie University under the express terms of an educational licence between it, ARIA, AMCOS, APRA and PPCA and may only be used as authorised by Macquarie University pursuant to the terms of that licence";

Information -

the title of each musical work;
the name of each composer, lyricist and arranger of the musical work; and
if the recording is an ARIA sound recording, the artist/group name and the record company label.

Linking/embedding YouTube videos

The easiest way to use YouTube videos in teaching materials is to link to the videos from your teaching materials or to embed the videos in iLearn. The YouTube terms of use allow for these uses without needing permission from the copyright owners. But, you will want to be reasonably sure that the videos were uploaded legitimately.

How do I verify if a YouTube video is a legitimate upload? Check the uploader’s name and the YouTube channel (if there is one,) and consider the following:

Do all the videos on the channel have the same branding?
Does the uploader’s name match the producer’s/company’s name?
If you check the URL for the YouTube Channel, is the URL a professional sounding name?
Is the YouTube channel an official channel? It should have a tick against the name.
Does the channel have many subscribers? If it is a well known company, there should be a substantial number of subscribers.

Not all of the above factors will be dispositive for all kinds of videos, but they’re a good starting place. Again, you just need to feel reasonably sure that the video was uploaded legitimately--significant research is not needed. There are some very good fake accounts out there, just like there are with phishing emails, but by considering user names, URLs, other content on those channels, and YouTube verification, any non-legitimate videos and/or channels should be weeded out.

Downloading/uploading videos

If you want to copy and communicate video, that’s possible, too. Teachers can copy and communicate (email, upload online) video content (VHS, DVD, online videos such as YouTube) for educational purposes under an exception in the Copyright Act known as flexible dealing or s200AB.

Flexible dealing only applies where:

The use is for “educational instruction” - this means you must have a clear educational activity in mind at the time. ‘Just in case’ copying is not permitted.
Access is strictly limited to those students and staff engaging in the educational instruction.
Your use is “reasonable”. Your use is likely to be unreasonable where:
- You can purchase the material you are copying in the format required or obtain a licence for your proposed use on reasonable terms;
- You have used more than what is required for the educational instruction purpose;
- You expose the material to a risk of piracy. Access to s200AB copies must be password protected.

Labelling/attribution

Material copied and communicated under s200AB should be labelled to include the author and/or copyright owner of the video, the name, the title of the work, date the copy was made, and, if the copy is from an online source, include the URL.

For example, copying three minutes from a YouTube documentary should be attributed this way:

“Copied under s200AB of the Copyright Act 1968, Documentary Discovery Channel, ‘How Newspapers Are Made’, August 2014”

Copyright for iLearn

Only certain material can be uploaded to iLearn. This is because of copyright and licensing restrictions. All teaching staff are responsible for copyright compliance on iLearn.

The following material can be uploaded to iLearn:

All learning and teaching material created by Macquarie staff is Macquarie owned material. This is because as an employee/contractor of the University, all learning and teaching material you create in the course of your employment with the University belongs to Macquarie as the copyright owner (unless otherwise stated).

Macquarie University owned original material must be clearly labelled with “Copyright Macquarie University” and contain the following message:

"This material is provided to you as a Macquarie University student for your individual research and study purposes only. You cannot share this material publicly online without permission. Macquarie University is the copyright owner of (or has licence to use) the intellectual property in this material. Legal and/or disciplinary actions may be taken if this material is shared without the University’s written permission."

This message will help ensure that the information and resources you share with students is used for the intended purpose. While this statement fits best in a footer-type location, its placement is ultimately up to you as the creator/user of the material.

This statement should be placed on all Macquarie material provided to students including PowerPoint presentations, printed resources, worksheets, examinations, assessment instructions etc.

You may upload material to iLearn that you own copyright in, for example, your original work created outside of your employment with Macquarie University, that does not belong to another individual or institution. In this instance, by uploading the material to iLearn, it is taken that you grant Macquarie University permission to use your material on iLearn.

This material should be clearly attributed with your name and a statement that it is being used with permission. For example, “Used on iLearn with the direct permission of Thomas Jones.”

If you do not wish for the material to be shared more broadly by students outside of their study and research, such as on note sharing websites, the material should also contain the following statement:

Note that material you have authored that is published is likely to be subject to copyright and licensing restrictions. Before uploading this material to iLearn, you must refer to your publication agreement to determine whether you are able to use the published work on a learning management system for teaching purposes. If you are not able to do so and the material is part of the course readings, contact the Library on lib.unitreadings@mq.edu.au for further assistance.

For material that is not University owned or your own original work, the copyright owner must consent for the material to be used on iLearn.

In some cases, consent has already been given and you will not need to seek further permission from the copyright owner. This includes all material that is licensed under a Creative Commons licence or other licence that enables further copying and use for educational purposes. See below for further information on free for education material.

Where the material is not already licensed for educational use, you will need to seek permission directly from the copyright owner in order to upload this material to iLearn. This includes student work that is being used on iLearn by teaching staff, for example, as an exemplar work. Students own copyright in their work and their permission should be sought before a student work is used for teaching purposes on iLearn.

Obtaining permission from the copyright owner can be as simple as asking them to agree to the following statement by email “I grant Macquarie University permission to use ‘title’ on Macquarie’s learning management system for Macquarie students only.” It is best practice to save and store these emails for future reference.

It is important that this material include the following statement to ensure that it is only used for its intended purpose:

While this statement fits best in a footer-type location, its placement is ultimately up to you as the user of the material to determine the best place for this message.

Free for education material

A copyright owner may decide that they want their material to be used for educational purposes. In this case, they will licence the material in a way that allows educational institutions to use the material without having to seek permission. Refer to the copyright statement or terms of use on a website to determine whether the material can be used for educational purposes. Some terms clearly state that the website can be used for “educational use” or “educational purposes.” Terms that allow “non-commercial use” or “organisational use” include educational use. However, if the website only permits “personal use,” the material is not licensed for educational purposes.

Material that can be used for educational purposes is sometimes referred to as ‘free for education material’. A lot of free for education materials allow teachers to modify and share the material for teaching and learning. In this case, the material is categorised as ‘open education resources’ also commonly referred to as ‘OER’.

The most common source of free for education material and OER is Creative Commons (CC) licensed material. A lot of Australian federal and state government material is available under a CC licence including material held in Australian museums, galleries and libraries. See OER Libguides for further information on OER.

For further information on CC, see the following fact sheets available on the CC website.

Public domain material are works where the period of copyright protection has expired. This means that anyone can copy the content without having to first obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Some people mistakenly believe that once a work is published or available for free from the internet, it is in the ‘public domain’. This is not true. Publicly available internet material, such as an online newspaper article or images on Google or Flickr, are all protected by copyright.

Due to special licensing agreements, music and broadcast content can be uploaded to iLearn. However, the rules are different for commercial video and DVDs. For information on what can be uploaded and how it should be labelled see below:

Music

Teaching staff can save digital sound recordings to iLearn for educational purposes. This is permitted under a national blanket licence with Australian music collecting societies. All copies must be from legitimate sources of music and must contain the notice and information listed above.

Commercial film and video

Although you may show a movie or a documentary to your students during scheduled class time without asking for permission, copyright law does not permit uploading the video to iLearn or capturing a movie on Echo360. Here are some alternatives for providing video to students on iLearn.

Best practice is to search the Library’s video resources through MultiSearch before making any copies. A number of video platforms are available through the Library that enable access to commercial film and also broadcast content. This is an efficient and easy way to incorporate video content into your iLearn page.

If the video that you need to use is not available through the Library, you should see whether it is publicly available on the broadcaster’s website, their official YouTube channel or another website that is operated by the broadcaster or an official partner/provider/distributor. In this case, linking to or embedding the content is the most effective way to include the content on your iLearn page.

Free for education materials – You can also use video that is licensed for educational purposes by the copyright owner. Refer to the copyright statement or terms of use on a website to determine whether the material can be used for educational purposes. The most well known licences are Creative Commons (CC) licences.

Broadcasts – You may copy and upload the following content under a special statutory licence:

any off-air TV or radio broadcasts (free-to-air and pay TV channels); and
podcasts/webcasts of programs previously broadcast on a free-to-air channel.

It is important to note that the statutory licence does not cover:

podcasts/webcasts of programs previously broadcast on a pay TV channel; and
pirate copies of broadcast content.

Broadcast copies must be labelled with the name of the program, the broadcaster and the date that the copy was made. If the copy is a webcast or podcast of a previously broadcast program, the URL should also be included eg

Copied under s 113P of the Copyright Act 1968 ‘Foreign Correspondent’, ABC, May 2014
Copied under s 113P of the Copyright Act 1968 ‘Catalyst’, ABC, https://www.youtube.com/user/ABCTVCatalyst, May 2014

Flexible dealing exception – If all else fails, and you cannot find the video material that you need for teaching through any of the methods suggested above, then you may be able to rely upon a section in the Copyright Act known as the Flexible Dealing Exception. This section can be helpful when no other options are available but it is very technical, where the use depends upon certain tests. For further information, contact the Library’s Copyright staff on copyright@mq.edu.au.

Attribution

All material uploaded to iLearn must be fully attributed. This includes stating the title of the work, name of the author and details of the publisher/website the work was taken from.

Material that is original Macquarie material can be saved to iLearn provided it is clearly labelled with “Copyright Macquarie University.”

Where you have obtained direct permission from the copyright owner to use their material on iLearn, it is imperative that you label that material as being “used on iLearn with the direct permission of the copyright owner.”

Macquarie material and material used with permission should also contain the following message:

This statement should be placed on all material provided to students including PowerPoint presentations, printed resources, worksheets, examinations, assessment instructions etc.

If the work is Creative Commons, you are required to provide a link to the Creative Commons licence that the material is licensed under. For example, if you are uploading an image sourced from Flickr available under a Creative Commons licence, you would include the following attribution: “A Summer’s Day” by Rani Lisbon available on Flickr under a CC BY 4.0

Unit readings on iLearn

For text material that you do not have permission to use but wish to add as unit readings, such as book chapters and journal articles, contact the Library’s Unit Readings service. Complex and technical copyright requirements apply to this material which can be managed by Library staff.

Reading lists containing copyright content and licensed resources can be made available on the Library’s reading list management system, Leganto. Once a reading list is created in Leganto, links to the readings can be provided from iLearn. For more information see how to manage unit resources.

Linking and embedding

One practical way of using content without having to worry about copyright is by providing a link or embedding the content onto your page. Embedding means that the content appears on the iLearn page so the student isn’t required to leave iLearn in order to view the content. Many image and video hosting websites provide the option to embed the content onto your webpage.

Library licensed resources

Note: you are not permitted to copy and upload material to iLearn that is available through the Library, eg PDFs of licensed journal articles or books. The only way to include this material on your iLearn page is by providing a link. Making local copies of this content for use on iLearn is not permitted by licensing and copyright agreements that the University has in place.

If you require assistance on how to link to library resources, contact your Faculty Librarian.

Copyright for Unit Readings

Due to copyright and licensing restrictions, only certain material can be uploaded to the iLearn platform. University policy does not permit staff to upload third party material directly to iLearn unit pages unless it is in the public domain (where copyright has expired), or you have explicit permission from the copyright owner to do so. All teaching staff are responsible for copyright compliance on iLearn.

For text material that you do not have permission to use but wish to add as student readings on your iLearn pages, such as book chapters and journal articles, you should use the Library’s Unit Readings service. The Library will help you to manage the complex and technical copyright requirements that apply to this material. For more information see how to manage unit resources.

Other copyright-related benefits of Unit Readings:

Trained Library staff review your reading list for copyright and licensing compliance once it is submitted to Unit Readings
The Unit Readings service ensures that the prescribed copyright notice required for materials made available under the statutory licence is in place
The copyright materials that you provide to your students are managed by the Library and stored in a central system
Royalties paid by Copyright Agency (CAL) to rightsholders for educational use only apply to materials located in a central system of a University, and identified during CAL sampling surveys.

Library licensed resources are subject to licence conditions that usually do not permit PDFs of licensed journal articles or chapters from e-books to be copied and communicated to students on iLearn.

The only way to include this material on your iLearn page is by providing a link, not a copy. If you require assistance with how to link to library licensed resources, contact your Faculty Librarian.

If you do not have explicit permission from the copyright owner, scanned book chapters and journal articles can only be copied and communicated to students in accordance with the limits imposed by the statutory licence for educational use in the Copyright Act.

Apart from being subject to copying limits, scanned items also need to display a prescribed notice. They also need to be stored on a central system such as Unit Readings so that rightsholders can be appropriately remunerated. These readings are monitored through sampling surveys conducted for CAL, a collecting society that represents authors and publishers.

For these regulatory reasons, scanned book chapters and articles cannot be uploaded directly to iLearn unit webpages. They must be managed through the Library’s Unit Readings service.

The general limit for copying from print books is one chapter, or 10 per cent of the pages, whichever is the greater.

In some cases, it is possible to include multiple scanned chapters in Unit Readings if this is less than 10 per cent of the overall total. The Library will attempt to locate an ebook to replace scanned chapters. Ebook licences usually allow linking to more than one chapter so ebooks are a flexible alternative.

A teacher can exceed these copying limits (eg a whole book or entire play) where the work:

has not been separately published
cannot be purchased within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price.

Unit Readings staff can advise whether these conditions apply.

If the scanned chapters are being used by students in different units, the Library’s Unit Readings service can usually make both chapters available to the different cohorts in Unit Readings.

The general rule is that one scanned journal article can be copied from an issue of a journal. However, if the articles are on a closely related topic, then you may copy more than one article from the issue. This also applies when the issue in question is a ‘special issue’, or a thematic issue.

Remember that this advice only applies to print journals. Ejournals are subject to licensing conditions. It will usually be possible to link to more than one article per issue in an ejournal.

Library staff can determine if copyright has expired in a work or if it is not available for purchase within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price.

If it is out of print or out of copyright, the Library can make more than 10 per cent of the printed book available.

If you are the author of a work, and if you have retained copyright in that work, you will be able to use the work in accordance with the conditions of your agreement with the publisher.

If you have not published through a commercial publisher and have not entered into any other agreement that might limit your use of material you created, you can probably use the material as you wish.

Yes, as long as the publisher holds the copyright on the work in question. Library staff are happy to help you with approaching the publisher if you wish to have the material placed on Unit Readings.