The following information is intended to provide a general guide for students. It will be updated as part of a revision of Charles Sturt's Copyright site.
Generally, students own the copyright in the work that they produce as part of their Charles Sturt course (see also Charles Sturt University's Intellectual Property Policy). This means that the use of their work is protected by the Copyright Act, 1968.
Students should be aware that the work of others is also protected by copyright. You generally need permission to do such things as copy another person's work, or to email it or put it online. The Copyright Act gives some exceptions, however, under which people can copy the work of others without their permission.
One of the exceptions in the Copyright Act is 'fair dealing', where people are able to copy others' work for certain purposes. 'Dealing' means using someone else's work in a way that is covered by the Copyright Act, such as copying it. Whether this is done in a 'fair' way depends on whether you are using it for one of the allowed purposes and the context in which you use it.
The fair dealing provisions permit the copying of the whole or part of an article from a periodical. You may copy more than one article from the same issue of a periodical, if they are for the same research or course of study.
The fair dealing provisions also permit the copying of a 'reasonable portion' from a literary, dramatic or musical work. What makes up a reasonable portion will depend on the circumstances but generally is 10% of the number of pages of a work where a work has more than ten pages, or one chapter where a work is divided into chapters. If copying a literary or dramatic work from an electronic original, it would be 10% of the number of words. For notated music a reasonable portion would be 10% of the whole (for audio files or sound recordings, see 'Audio-Visual Items' below).
In deciding whether or not copying a larger amount, or copying an artistic work, will constitute fair dealing, the Copyright Act doesn't define fair dealing precisely, but states that the following fairness factors are to be considered:
There is a fair dealing exception for copying an audio-visual item for the purpose of research or study. In deciding whether copying an audio-visual item will constitute fair dealing, the Copyright Act doesn't define fair dealing precisely, but states that the following fairness factors are to be considered:
Copyright guidelines for film and media students
Fair dealing for the purpose of research or study only applies to the individual who is making the copy. That is, you can copy someone else's work for your private research or study but you cannot put it online for the benefit of other people unless this is specifically required by your course, for example as part of working on a group assignment in a restricted access network.
If you copy another person's work for the purpose of your research or study, then that is the only use of the material that is protected. If you then take the material and use it for another purpose entirely, for example seeking employment, or selling copies, it is no longer fair dealing and you will need to seek permission.
The creators of works have moral rights under the Copyright Act. These are:
Thus you must always attribute work that you have copied for your research or study.
This advice is intended to be of a general nature only. Students may seek further information on what they may copy from:
Email: copyright@csu.edu.au
Phone: 1 800 275 278
International Fax +61 2 (02) 6933 2900