As both a student and an information consumer it’s a good idea to develop responsible ways of using information, which means understanding how copyright law works.
The benefits of copyright law
Honouring copyright law means that:
- people whose income relies on their creative endeavours are paid;
- as a student you can access and respond to the body of knowledge and information generated by people currently; and
- as a creator of copyright yourself, any work you produce is protected and hopefully remunerated in a way that encourages further creative contribution.
How to use information responsibly
Copyright and the Internet
There has been a myth that material on the Internet is free, exempt from copyright law. The recent Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act 2000 clearly asserts that online materials are protected by copyright.
Websites often have a copyright statement on them that tells you what you are permitted to do with copyright material on the site. Permission might vary from view, print, download, copy or reuse.
However it some cases it is not always clear what the copyright owner permits users to do with online materials. There might not be a copyright statement, or a direct indication of permissions. This does not mean that the material is copyright free. To be on the safe side you should assume that most of the material you access on the Internet is protected by copyright.
Here are some guidelines:
Look for a copyright statement on the site and find out what it says you can do with site materials.
If you can’t find a statement are there any other directions on the site that suggest that the copyright owner authorises you to do certain things. An example would be if the site includes functions like “printer friendly version” or “to email this story”.
If you want to reproduce or communicate material from a web site, and it has no clear statement about what you can do with the site content then you could:
- ask the copyright owner of the web site content if you can use it (there is usually a contact email address);
- rely on access to some of the content within the limits of what is allowed through the fair dealing provision of the Copyright Act;
- rely on access to a very small amount of the content within the limits of what is allowed through insubstantial copying, another provision in the Copyright Act; or
- simply browse Internet content, as this is free and does not break any copyright law.
Remember that you could be breaking copyright law if you do any of the following things without having the copyright owner’s permission:
- download material from the Internet;
- save Internet material onto disk;
- share files from the Internet; or
- forward Internet material to others (such as an email attachment).
Sourcing Information
Get into the practice of acknowledging where you got ideas or information from in any schoolwork that you do. This process is called attribution. The Copyright Aware website has included an Assignment Copyright Checklist for you to fill in and include when you submit class work or projects.
Using information
When you use any information taken from somebody else’s work make sure that you are not using it in a way that the creator might find offensive.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Have you altered the material in any way?
- Have you put it in a different context that changes the way the creator intended their work to be perceived?
- Have you published these changes, emailed them, put them online?
Publishing someone else’s content requires the permission of the copyright owner, altering the material, or changing its context, also requires permission from the creator. The copyright owner and the creator are not always the same person.
Learning more about copyright
You might want to learn more about copyright and intellectual property matters for your own reasons, maybe you have ideas or ambitions that you want to research. If so, follow the pointers to other copyright resources in the resource pack.
Promoting responsible information use
You might want to change attitudes, make people aware of copyright issues— if you do there are posters and screensavers included in the resource pack for you to spread the word.
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