Digital Essentials: Copyright and copyright infringement

In Australia the relevant legislation is the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), and all material including creative material is automatically protected and covered under copyright, including your own original student work. 

Please note: Copyright only protects the expression of a work, it does not protect ideas, concepts, styles or techniques. For example, copyright will not protect an idea for a film or book, but it will protect a script for the film, or even a storyboard for the film. Copyright is not perpetual (it does not last forever), and works can lapse or expire into the Public Domain for free use.

As a Student, Fair Dealing provisions give you some limited exemptions, however, it is a good idea to be aware of Copyright laws, and use works responsibly. In particular, knowing how to use Copyright and / or non-Copyright material correctly is an important skill for professional practice.

Copyright law does allow for certain restricted uses of protected material by others, as under "Fair Dealing" exemptions, or under specific licensed conditions. There are also Public Domain materials, where the copyright term has either expired or been waived. For all other uses, permissions have to be obtained from the copyright holder.

Note: When in doubt, ask for permission.

Treat all material whether found in print or online as copyright, unless specifically identified as being in the Public Domain, or under a Copyleft license like Creative Commons.

Note: Public Domain and Copyleft items must still be cited as a source, and your use identified. Otherwise, this is Plagiarism.

Piracy or Copyright "Infringement" is when you use Copyright material in ways which "infringe" on the owner's protected rights to make decisions regarding the reproduction and distribution of their work. It is significant that this is not "theft" (given the Copyright owner still possess the material to profit from, with only their exclusivity being infringed.) Neither does your infringement have to result in economic profit.

Methods of infringement:

• Accessing a copy of a work unlawfully. For example, downloading a copy of a work from a torrenting site, or streaming it via intermediaries who are not authorised to distribute the material is infringement. Note, these sites may be used to legitimately distribute copyright material, however, this is difficult to know.

Presenting a "reasonable portion" of a work in a University assignment should be covered under Fair Dealing, however, if the work was downloaded from an infringing site, then the assignment is also infringing Copyright.

• Adapt or create a Derivative work. Adapting a Copyright work (say making a short film from a play script), or creating a Derivative work like a music re-mix is an exclusive right of the Copyright owner. Making an unauthorised Adaptation or Derivative is Copyright Infringement.
• Making an unauthorised copy of a work. Other than a limited set of exemptions, such as making a back-up copy for personal use, or recording a broadcast for your own later use, making an unauthorised copy is infringing on the Copyright owner's rights. This includes sharing and distributing material online.
• Perform or Present a work in public. Performance rights are required to show a work publicly. Note, there may be separate rights involved, such as with music performance. For a music performance the performer or venue must pay for performance rights, but the music publication rights must also be purchased (generally by having purchased, authorised copies of the print music for each performer).

What this means is that even if you are not profiting from infringement, you may be infringing the copyright owner's rights. This applies even if you are making what might otherwise be a permissible use of a work (such as using part of a film for an assignment).