Copyright @ CDU: Copyright for Students

The purpose of your proposed use must be research or study. This would include work you are required to undertake as part of the course you are enrolled in at CDU.

If you want to use material found on the Web for your research and study, you may do so under the 'fair dealing' provisions, but remember that you are restricted to using the material for your research or study only.

In most cases you can only copy a reasonable portion of a work. A reasonable portion is: 

• 10% or one chapter of a book
• One article from any one issue of a journal - 2 or more articles from any one issue of a journal if the articles are relevant to the same unit of study
• For a digital or electronic item that is not divided into chapters, then 10% of the number of words can be copied

Educational institutions that are covered by a remuneration notice with the Copyright Agency are permitted to copy and communicate text, images and notated music subject to certain conditions.

These images can be communicated for teaching purposes in presentations for lectures and uploaded to the Learning Management System (Blackboard), as well as be used for research or study by current staff and students. The amount you can copy from these works isn’t specified in the Copyright Act, but Fair Dealing applies to these and other types of works such as diagrams, artworks, films, TV programs and CDs.

However, you must provide the relevant attribution next to the photograph, or close by (eg on the edge or bottom of the page) if that is too obtrusive.

Check your referencing guide for more on attribution and referencing of images.

There are various sites that provide free access to images that either sit in the public domain or have a Creative Commons licence, like for example Flickr, Pixabay, Wikimedia, etc. See the CDU Open Education Resources Guide for more options.

Fair dealing

The Australian Copyright Act 1968 provides some exceptions to the rights of copyright owners allowing students to use material without permission from copyright owners as long as they comply with certain conditions. It contains what are known as fair dealing provisions which allows individuals to reproduce literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works without obtaining permission from the copyright owner, providing it is done for one of a limited number of purposes and meets the requirements of 'fair dealing' as outlined in the legislation.

It allows you to copy limited amounts of literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works as part of their study as long as they comply with the following conditions:

• The purpose of your proposed use must be research or study. This would include work you are required to undertake as part of the course you are enrolled in at CDU.
• The proposed use must be 'fair'.

This is determined by taking into account:

• The purpose and character of the dealing
• The nature of the work or adaptation
• The possibility of obtaining the work or adaptation within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price
• The effect of the dealing upon the potential market for, or value of, the work or adaptation
• The amount and substantiality of the part copied taken in relation to the whole work or adaptation

In most cases you can only copy a reasonable portion of a work. A reasonable portion is: 

• 10% or one chapter of a book
• One article from any one issue of a journal - 2 or more articles from any one issue of a journal if the articles are relevant to the same unit of study
• For a digital or electronic item that is not divided into chapters, then 10% of the number of words can be copied

Copying the whole of a textbook would not be considered fair, even if required for a course of study and considered too expensive to purchase.