About Copyright

The University of Western Australia, its staff and students are subject to the provisions of the Commonwealth of Australia Copyright Act 1968 (and amendments). Briefly, the underlying principles of copyright law are,

(i) to grant authors, creators (and those who invest in their work, e.g., publishers) prescribed rights over the work and to reward them for the time and effort required to put an idea into a material form - be it an essay, poem, book, computer program, drawing, painting, sculpture, film or sound recording etc, and

(ii) to enable those other than copyright owners, reasonable access to those works.

The Copyright Act provides a copyright owner exclusive control to the following uses of their works:

Reproduction - photocopying, scanning, rewriting, duplicating, recording
Publication - Make available to the public
Communicate to the Public - email, make available via web, datacasting, streaming, etc.
Public Performance - Live or recorded
Broadcast - Radio, TV, cable or satelite
Be named as the creator of the work ("Moral Rights")
Adaptation

However, the Act also provides exceptions to the exclusive rights of the copyright owner, to enable among others, Educational Institutions, students and individuals, reasonable access to copyright works for purposes of education, research or study, and criticism or review. 

For a work to attract the protection of copyright it must be original and exhibit some skill and effort and it must be reduced to material form. Copyright covers the expression of an idea or concept not the idea itself. Copyright is normally owned by the author, artist, or maker of an original recording, except for work by employees in course of employment. In the case of employees of UWA this is modified by UWA's Intellectual Property Policy.

Other Features:
 
Moral Rights are separate from Copyright but like copyright are automatic, and relate to the integrity of the creator of a work (as opposed to the owner of the copyright in a work). As the creator of the work, a person is entitled to maintain the integrity of the work against unauthorised adaptations or failure to credit or attribute the work to the original creator.
 
Copyright protection is automatic from the time a work is recorded or written down in some way. A copyright notice is a not necessary for a work to be protected but is it a good idea in order to serve as a warning to others that the work is protected. It takes this form:

© name of author, year of work's creation. (For example, ©John Smith, 1998)

The duration of copyright depends on the type of work, but is normally the life of the author plus 50 years (this will increase to life plus 70 years once the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement of 2004 is fully implemented). Infringement of copyright is generally by reproducing a 'substantial part' or by performing one of the other exclusive rights of copyright owners without permission.

Copying Licences. Universities have available to them two Statutory Licences under the Copyright Act which enable the institutions to reproduce copyright material in limited amounts for the educational purposes of the university. These two licences are administered by two copyright collecting agencies, the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), and Screenrights. More information about the parameters of these licences can be found in pages for copying print and graphic material and audio visual material. 

Exceptions to the exclusive rights of copyright owners. Generally, you do not need permission to reproduce copyright material if your dealing is fair. Fair dealing in a work is generally restricted to the purpose of

research or study;
criticism or review;
reporting news.

See 'fair dealing' for more information.

Consequences of and remedies for infringement

The Copyright Act provides copyright owners with a number of remedies for copyright infringement including:

(a)  damages; 
(b)  punitive damages;
(c)  damages for conversion;
(d)  account of profits;
(e)  delivery up of infringing copies; and/or
(f)  injunctions (interlocutory & final)

This page only constitutes a basic summary of important copyright issues for the University and your activities within it. You should familiarise yourself with the copyright information contained on the other pages of this site.

Copyright for students

What does copyright protect?

(For further assitance or information contact the Copyright Officer)