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Copyright: Copyright for Staff

Text and artistic works: As a staff member, what can I copy?

Under the statutory education licence (section 113P of the Copyright Act) SAE staff are permitted to make multiple copies of print and electronic material for teaching and research purposes. The limits for a unit of study are:

  • Book - 10% or one chapter of a book, whichever is the greater;
  • Periodical - one article from any single issue of a journal, or in a case where there are several articles in the journal on the same topic, more than one article may be copied;
  • Dramatic work - A reasonable portion. In a work greater than ten pages, one chapter or 10% of pages (10% of words if electronic source);
  • Sheet music - 10% of a work greater than 10 pages;
  • Images & paintings - the whole of an artistic work.

A copyright warning notice must be included on the front page of all readings produced for SAE units and courses. 

Class handouts do not require a copyright notice.

Television and radio broadcasts

Recordings of broadcasts copied under the Statutory education licence (Screenrights Agreement) may be copied and made available online. The licence allows SAE to copy and communicate: 

  • Broadcasts in Australia (any channel from free-to-air TV, pay TV or radio);
  • The content of a broadcast that has been made available online by the broadcaster (e.g. content on SBS On Demand, or ABC iView).

The following conditions apply:

  • There are no copying or communication limits for broadcasts;
  • It can be copied in any format (analogue or digital);
  • Access is restricted to SAE staff and students;
  • The use must be for educational purposes only.

You can link to the content (include the attribution) or if you wish to digitise broadcast content (e.g., a film available on SBS On Demand) and make it available to students, please contact the library.

Note: The Statutory licence for education does not allow for copying and communication of commercially produced video content. This includes commercial DVDs and programs delivered via a video-on-demand service such as Netflix. See information on copying from streaming services and commercial DVDs below.

Films on commercial DVDs & Streaming Services

Streaming services

Review the terms of the streaming service for your account before screening material in class. Where a screening is against the terms of service, consider setting the film as required viewing for your students who can arrange their own access to the platform. Netflix allows for educational screenings of certain documentaries. See the Netflix Educational screenings of documentaries help page for details.

Commercial DVDs

You can show a film on a commercial DVD to students in class. If a film is shown in a recorded lecture, it is advisable to pause the lecture recording while the video is being played. By recording a film during a lecture, a copy of the film has been made and the statutory licence for education does not allow for commercial DVDs to be copied and communicated. It may be possible to copy and communicate excerpts of film for teaching purposes. If you are showing small clips or extracts of a film to critically analyse or review these clips in your lecture, then it is possible to include this in your recording.  

Using commercial film content as course materials for students

Fair and flexible dealing exceptions and educational statutory licences allow for copying of the copyright-protected material, so long as the amount copied is not a substantial amount. Therefore, in very limited circumstances, it may be possible to copy and communicate excerpts from commercial video content for educational purposes but this exception applies on a case-by-case basis. Contact the library for more information.

Music Recordings

SAE holds an APRA-AMCOS music licence that allows SAE staff and students to reproduce and communicate music and music video recordings within the repertoire of AMCOS and ARIA for educational purposes without having to obtain permission from the copyright holders. 

The following conditions apply:

  • The music recording can be in a physical format e.g., a DVD, or, a digital format e.g .WAV;
  • It must be from a legitimate copy of a DVD, or, from a legal provider such as iTunes;
  • The copying must be for educational purposes associated with a course of study or research;
  • The copying can be to a physical or digital format;
  • The copies can only be made available to SAE students or staff.

Can I put material online?

The copyright law allows educators to use third-party copyright material for educational purposes without having to seek permission from the copyright owner. The use of copyright material for educational purposes is permitted through Statutory Education licenses and Exceptions within the Copyright Act 1968. 

You are permitted to put print and electronic material online for teaching purposes, however, rather than uploading PDFs or other files directly into Campus Online, SAE uses FLEX (Readings Management System) and CREO (Institutional Repository) to store and share material with only SAE students via secure digital links. To request the copyright-compliant copies be uploaded into FLEX, contact the library.

If a journal or a book is available in the SAE library only in print format, current students and staff can request an article or chapter from the item to be digitised. Please see further information about the process of requesting digitisation or requesting articles and chapters from other libraries. 

If you wish to copy audiovisual material for teaching, contact the library.

Licensed Electronic Resources

If you acquire copies of, or access to, material in digital form, your rights to use the material will be governed by a licence from the copyright owner, rather than by provisions in the Copyright Act. Examples of licensed digital resources are: online journals, online databases, computer programs, e-books, multimedia items such as computer games, digital music, digital film and video.

In general, these agreements do not permit you to make multiple copies for teaching use; nor do they permit you to copy licensed resources to another location for purposes of student access.  Linking directly to an electronic book, a video, an image, or an article in an online journal or newspaper, is not considered creating a copy of the work, and thus Direct Linking is the preferred option of sharing resources online.  Please use the SAE Library Linking Guide or contact library staff for assistance.

Copyright and the Internet

Material found on the Internet is not necessarily “free”. Copyright law applies to online as well as printed material. You should be particularly cautious about accessing music and video on the Internet. Music and video available for download from websites or through peer-to-peer networks may be in the form of illegal copies, which infringe copyright. Having illegal copies on your computer makes you vulnerable to prosecution.

It is legitimate to show YouTube videos in class as long as the video is streamed directly from the site and it is not for profit.

Powerpoint presentations

The Copyright Act allows copyright material to be reproduced in powerpoint presentations for educational purposes. You must attribute this copyright material with a full citation. Limits apply similar to those for printed material. Material, which is placed online, must have restricted access to students and staff of the institution. A copyright warning notice should be included so that it is viewed prior to the presentation.