Copyright Compliance Procedure

The purpose of our procedure

To outline how we use third party material lawfully and support copyright compliance in our activities.

Please read this procedure in conjunction with the following policies and procedures:

• [Intellectual Property Policy]
• Open Access Procedure
• [Research Data and Primary Materials Policy]
• [IT Policy]

Who our procedure applies to

Our procedure applies to all members of the Adelaide University community.  Breaches of this procedure or copyright legislation may constitute misconduct which may lead to disciplinary proceedings for staff, student misconduct for students, as well as legal proceedings.

Our Copyright Compliance Procedure

Staff and students must comply with copyright law and with any restrictions or conditions under relevant licences or permissions when using third party material.  Staff and students must respect the moral rights of authors and appropriately attribute authors of third party materials.

Staff are encouraged to first consider using Open Educational Resources (OER).  If no suitable OER are available, staff may rely on educational licences, commercial licences and exceptions that enable us to use third party materials.

Staff and students may also rely on legislative exceptions to use third party materials, for example, for research or study, criticism or review, but these exceptions have specific conditions that must be met.

1. Commercial licences

We have entered into commercial licence agreements to provide staff and students with access to third party material. This includes electronic resources via the Library and computer software via [Information Technology and Digital Services] [link to website]. Access to and use of this material is governed by individual licence agreements.  The conditions of these differ from those of the educational licences and legislative exceptions.

If a proposed use is not covered by an existing licence or exception, staff and students must not use the material unless they have obtained written permission or a separate licence from the relevant rightsholder(s).

If there is any uncertainty, staff and students must seek advice from the [role] before using the material.

2. Course readings

[myReadings] is the mandated central system used to manage third party copyright material made available to students online. It is accessible to staff and students via [LMS] course sites and includes resources such as journal articles, eBook chapters and web content.

Library licensed or openly licensed material refers to third party copyright material where the Library has entered into a commercial arrangement for access to the material. This includes journal articles, books, videos, music and other publications available via the Library’s online databases. Staff must not upload copies of library licensed material directly to [LMS]. The course readings system must be used instead.

3. Illustrative materials

Illustrative works, such as images, photographs, tables and graphs, copied under an educational licence may be included in teaching materials if used for educational purposes. Illustrative works must be attributed unless attribution is clearly not practicable. Staff and students must check the terms of use before using illustrative content.

The University prefers the use of openly licenced resources.

4. Physical supply of third party material to students

Physical copies of the following material may be supplied to students:

• material copied under an open licence, such as OER
• material copied under the terms of our educational licence, provided copying limits are followed, for example:
  • one chapter or 10% of a book
  • one article per journal issue
  • 10% of a music score
• material copied under a separate licence or with the copyright owner’s permission.

Additional copying allowances may apply for students with a disability, where specific legislative criteria are met. See [link] for further guidance.

5. Inclusion of third party material in lecture recordings

Third party material may be played in lectures if required for educational purposes, such as music, films, videos from online sources such as YouTube. However, it may only be included in lecture recordings if the use is covered by a licence, legislative exception or written permission.

The following third party material may be included in lecture recordings:

• material where the use is covered by an open licence, such as OER
• materials purchased by the Library that are licensed for educational use
• radio and television broadcasts, including live, recorded or streamed radio and television programs that have previously been broadcast
• music which is included in the APRA-AMCOS catalogue
• material in which copyright does not subsist or has expired
• material where copyright permission has been obtained.

6. Offshore teaching

The use of third party materials for teaching activities delivered offshore is subject to the copyright laws of the country where the activity is undertaken.

7. Use of third party materials in Adelaide University theses

As part of the final thesis lodgement process, theses are added to the [University Research Repository]. Graduate research students are responsible for:

• declaring any third party material included in the thesis using the [Final Thesis Lodgement Form] [link]
• completing the [Third Party Copyright Clearance Form] [link]
• providing documentation for any permissions or licences obtained.

8. Research publications

Researchers must ensure copyright clearances are in place to include third party material, such as images, tables, figures or text excerpts, in their research output.

For most journal articles as well as many textbooks, permissions can be requested through the Copyright Clearance Centre. Alternatively, permissions may need to be obtained from rightsholder(s) directly.

Where possible, researchers should retain copyright in a version of their research output that allows for open access distribution. See the Open Access Procedure for more information.

9. Use of third-party materials and Gen-AI tools

Uploading or inputting third-party material, such as journal article or website content, into generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) tools may raise copyright compliance issues. Compliance depends on the licensing terms set by the copyright owner, and on how the Gen-AI tool stores, processes and uses uploaded content.

AI-generated outputs that reproduce third party material must not be shared unless copyright clearance is confirmed.

Users are responsible for ensuring copyright compliance before uploading material to Gen-AI tools or sharing AI-generated content.

10. Supporting copyright compliance

Adelaide University will provide staff and students with information, training and resources to support copyright compliance. Where central systems are provided to facilitate content management and copyright compliance, staff must use these systems and not any other system unless otherwise authorised to do so.

Staff and students must not use University facilities or equipment in a way that infringes copyright. See the [IT Acceptable Use and Security Policy].

Staff must cooperate with requests from the [Coordinator Copyright & Licensing] to provide details of their copying or communication of third party material.

The [role] is responsible for receiving and responding to internal and external allegations of copyright infringement by the University or users of University IT systems. Staff and students must notify the [Coordinator, Copyright & Licensing] if they become aware of:

• an allegation that the University has infringed the copyright of a third party
• University content or activity that they reasonably believe is in breach of copyright.

11. Take down notices

Adelaide University will respond promptly to all take down notices and will remove or disable access to the specified copyright material. Where no infringement is found, a counter-notice may be issued. Individuals who believe their copyright has been infringed should see [website] for further information.  

Definitions used in our procedure

Please refer to our Adelaide University glossary for a full list of our definitions.

Adelaide University Community refers to a broad range of stakeholders who engage with Adelaide University and includes (but is not limited to) all students, staff, and non-staff members of Adelaide University including alumni, honorary title holders, adjuncts, visiting academics, guest lecturers, volunteers, suppliers and partners who are engaging with and contributing to the work of Adelaide University.

Educational licences refers to the statutory licences outlined in Part IVA of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and the University’s music licence. The University is party to two statutory licences with the designated collecting societies, Copyright Agency (literary and artistic works) and Screenrights (broadcasts). These licences allow the University to copy and communicate works and broadcasts for educational purposes subject to limitations and conditions. In addition, the University has a commercial licence with music collecting societies APRA|AMCOS, PPCA and ARIA which allows various uses of music for educational purposes as well as certain non-educational uses.

Legislative exceptions means specific circumstances set out in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) where the use of copyright material without permission is permitted. These exceptions may include use for research or study, criticism or review, parody or satire, reporting the news, or provision of access for individuals with a disability. Each exception has defined criteria that must be met for the use to be lawful.

Moral rights means those personal rights conferred by Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) in relation to literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works and cinematograph films. These are rights for authors to be attributed as the author of their work; take action if their work is falsely attributed as being someone else’s work or is altered by someone else but attributed as if it were unaltered; and/or take action if their work is distorted or treated in a way which is prejudicial to their honour or reputation

Open Educational Resources (OER) means materials which are in the public domain or have been released under the terms of an open licence, such as Creative Commons, which allow them to be retained, reused, revised, remixed and redistributed.

Third party material means copyright material in which the copyright is held by a party other than the University. 

How our procedure is governed

This Procedure is categorised, approved and owned in line with the governance structure of Adelaide University and the offices and officers listed below.

Legislation and other documents related to this procedure

History of changes

At the time of writing, the organisational structure, positions, committees, or any other unknown item etc. for Adelaide University have not been confirmed. Accordingly, square brackets [ ] temporarily enclose such information in this procedure until confirmed.