Skip to Main Content

Copyright: Web & Social Media

Online Materials and Copyright

Not everything you find online is free to use (in fact, unless something is marked as licensed for re-use, or falls under the Public Domain, it's generally best to assume it is not free to use.)

You can always use an insubstantial section, or a reasonable portion of an original work under Fair Dealing (for purposes such as Parody and Satire, or Review), however, these uses are very limited.

If you do choose to include, or re-post Copyright material online (or in any public way) there are some best practices:

  • Embed or Link to the material, do not copy
  • Source legitimate copies.

Note: As always, permission from the owner may allow further usage.

Using Copyright material in your assignments is a different case. As long as your assessment submissions are not shared publicly, using a reasonable portion (as per Fair Dealing provisions) is allowed. Make sure to reference all work by other creators.

Embedding

Instead of copying material directly, it is best to link to the material, or if the platform allows for embedding their material in a frame on your own site, use that embedding code.

This does mean if the original creator removes it from their site, your readers will also lose access.

Embedding is a great way to help your readers engage with the external content, however, make sure it is clearly labelled as the work of the original creator.

Legitimate Copies

YouTube and user-generated, user-upload sites may have terms of use that allow for use of content without requiring permission from the uploader (and presumed Copyright holder.) However, you will want to be reasonably sure that the videos you choose to use have been uploaded legitimately.

How do I verify if a user-uploaded video is a legitimate upload? Check the uploader’s name and the site (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 / user profile is the URL a professional sounding name?
  • Is the site an official channel? On YouTube or Twitter it should have a tick against the name.
  • Does the user 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 or content, 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.

Aggregators

Note on Flickr, Google Images, Pintrest, and other content aggregators, these are not themselves creators or Copyright holders, they merely collect materials for discovery. When using materials from an aggregator, make all efforts to identify the original creator.

Look for attribution on the webpage, watermarks on the image or video, or check the file metadata (you may do this by right-clicking on a file and selecting Properties -> Details on Windows, on a Mac right-click your file and select Get Info.)

For images, try doing a reverse image search using Google, or another Web Search engine to look for other sources of the image online and try to locate the earliest official version.

This counts for both Copyright compliance, and Referencing sources.

Social Media

When posting to Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, YouTube, etc. there are additional points to be aware of when managing your own Works, the Works of others, and the ethical use of public materials.

Terms of Service

Before posting material online, be aware of any User agreements or Terms of service you have accepted.

For example, the Facebook Terms of Service state that you (the Facebook user) own the intellectual property rights (including copyright or trademark) to content you create and share on Facebook and other Facebook products. You can share your content with anyone else, any time you want. In return, Facebook says, you must agree to give them a license to use the content. Specifically:

"...you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create deriviate [sic] works of your content"

These Terms of service generally allow the Platform hosting your work the right to Distribute electronically (as a part of their service, which would normally be a protected right under Copyright), and allow the service to use your work in a non-exclusive manner to promote their own services. Be aware, these terms may impact your future opportunities to publish your work (e.g. By contravening the "First world rights" clause of a publishing contract.)

Livestreaming and Recording

Copyright infringement is a high risk when doing recordings and videos because you may not even realise you are violating copyright laws — but even if there is background audio that you’re not aware of, the creator of that audio may issue a Take Down Request for your video on copyright grounds.

In addition, there are other considerations, such as privacy concerns to be aware of.

If possible, consider filming in a quiet location where you know there won’t be any background audio, or visuals you don’t want to include.

Take Down Requests

When using the Works of others, be careful to only use material you have permission to use for that instance. When using Works (or Subject matter other than a work) the Copyright owner may issue a Take down request (Copyright Regulations 2017 (Cth.) div 4), where if you do not have permission to use the Work for that purpose, you must remove the offending content, or may have legal action taken against you.

Note: The "Safe harbour" provision of the Act (Part V Division 2AA) shields service providers (such as social media platforms, and the University itself) as long as they comply to notifications of Infringement by removing materials (and links to materials) immediately.

Protecting Yourself on Social Media

The best way to protect your intellectual property from being appropriated on social media is to not put it up there in the first place. Although you own the content you place on one of these social media sites, you have granted a license to the media site to use the content and for others to view it.

To protect content, include a copyright statement on the file for media (via file metadata or watermark.) Be aware that your property might get appropriated by someone (not associated with the social media site). You must be vigilant to keep track of possible violations and be quick to file complaints. If you are not vigilant, you may not be able to support your claims in a lawsuit.

The best way to file a complaint is to use a process called a takedown notice (see Copyright Regulations 2017 (Cth.)). This process allows you to send the notice, in a specific format, to the ISP (web host) of the website that you think is violating your copyright. The ISP removes the offending copy and notifies the website owner. The owner can send a counter-notice, and you can decide what to do from there. Get an attorney to help you through this process to make sure you are doing everything correctly

Defamation

There are also Moral rights concerns when using Copyright Works (and Subject matter other than Works), meaning you may have the legal right to use the material, but the way in which you use it is seen to Infringe the Author’s right of integrity of authorship (the Act pt IX div 4) via the derogatory treatment of their Work. Thus, you may still Infringe Copyright when you have License to otherwise publish the Work.

Note there are other areas of law you may infringe upon when using Social media, even when using Copyright Works legally. An example of such laws would be the Defamation Act 2005 (WA), always consider the potential ramifications of posting material online.

Best Practice on Social Media

The Best practice for sharing work online would be to use your own Copyright Works, or to utilise Creative Commons (CC) (or other CopyLeft licensed Works) under their licensed conditions. This means you do not have to rely on Copyright Exemptions for content, or deal with Takedown requests.

Regarding Terms of Service for Social media, if you plan to use your own Copyright Work in a commercial manner, it may be best to seek professional legal advice before posting the Works online.