Te Kete Wānaka
Learning, Teaching and Library
Copyright and course readings
You are responsible for making sure that material in any courses you teach complies with copyright law. We provide licenses, tools and guidance to make this as easy as possible.
The Copyright Act, and the license we have signed with CLNZ, allows you to copy some material for educational purposes, but with limits and reporting requirements. The easiest way for you to comply is by uploading all teaching materials into Leganto where we can manage it for you.
Everyone at Lincoln University is responsible for their own copying. This includes when you provide students with course readings, videos or other copyright material, either:
- as an upload to a website including Akoraka | Learn or Perusall
- as a printed handout or course book
- via email
Copyright can be a complex area of law and we don’t expect you to be copyright experts. Instead we advise that all course materials where you don’t personally own the copyright should be uploaded to Leganto. There LTL staff will confirm that it complies with our licences and ensure we report on it, or if there are any issues we’ll contact you to discuss alternative options.
Some specific cases include:
- Linking to materials on another website are fine, for example, links to YouTube videos; reports on a government website; or journal articles in a library database. (Use Leganto to ensure links to articles in library databases work off-campus too.) But avoid linking to filesharing websites which ignore copyright – like ResearchGate or SciHub.
- Perusall readings still need to be recorded in Leganto to comply with our licence. You may wish to use the similar interactive features in Leganto instead.
- Open access content, with a Creative Commons licence for instance, is fine as long as you cite it correctly including the source URL and the name of the licence. Read more about finding open access images and open access ebooks.
- Printed coursebooks need a copyright coversheet for the printery. Normally all readings should be recorded in Leganto for reporting purposes. If the excerpts are very short (eg a single figure or page) we may not need to report on them, but please discuss this with LTL to be sure all requirements of the Copyright Act 1994 section 44(3) to (4) have been met.
- Reusing material in your thesis or other research has different rules.
If you’re unsure about your use, please contact us.
Clips from videos or DVDs
- The Copyright Act allows “The playing or showing, for the purposes of instruction, of a sound recording, film, broadcast, or communication work …”, as long as the audience is “persons who are students or staff members at an educational establishment or are directly connected with the activities of the establishment”. So generally you may show clips of videos in lectures.
- The exception is if you sign a licence agreement when hiring or purchasing the video/DVD, which would override the Copyright Act.
- You may want to consider linking to clips from our video databases, YouTube or material with an appropriate Creative Commons Licence that allows easy reuse without having to seek permission.
Material in PowerPoint slides
- Under section 44(1) of the Copyright Act, a staff member (or student) giving a lecture can make a single copy of any amount of copyright material provided that:
- “(b) The copying is done –
- (i) In the course of preparation for instruction; or
- (ii) For use in the course of instruction; or
- (iii) In the course of instruction”
- Note, in a High Court Judgment dated 22 February 2002, Salmon J. ruled that copying under section 44(1) must be “for the instructor’s purpose of preparing and giving the lesson”, and not for other purposes. So this doesn’t allow copies of the slides to be printed or uploaded to Akoraka | Learn for students.
- “(b) The copying is done –
- Up to 3% or 3 pages of a work can be included in slides copied for students under section 44(3) to (4).
- Material not covered by section 44(3) to (4) can be reported in Leganto and then used in the slides.
- You could also consider using open access images where appropriate.
At Lincoln University, we operate under a number of different conditions for copying in the context of teaching courses. These are:
- The Copyright Act 1994 and its amendments, including the Education provisions of section 44 which allows up to 3 pages or 3% of a work to be supplied to students.
- Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011, which “provides rights owners with a special regime for taking enforcement action against people who infringe copyright through file sharing“. Uploading or downloading an infringing file, for example a song, a movie or a book is covered under this legislation. Lincoln University blocks peer-to-peer torrent sites which are currently the main mechanism used for the illegal download of copyright-protected media. Lincoln University may be obliged, under the Act, to investigate any infringements.
- The Copyright Licence which the Universities have agreed with Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ). This licence covers the following but the university must provide regular reporting on usage:
- up to 10% or one chapter from print books (not ebooks);
- 1 complete magazine and journal article per print issue (not from issues online);
- 5 newspaper article (print or digital) per issue;
- The Universities Music Licence from PPNZ which covers the copying, communicating, or performance of music for educational purposes.
- The Screenrights Licence which covers copying from television and radio and use for educational purposes. This licence does not apply to DVDs or streaming videos that have been hired or purchased.
If something you want to copy is not already permitted by the Copyright Act, one of the above licences, or a Creative Commons or other open access licence on the material, you will need written permission from the copyright holder/s of the work in question before you proceed. If you are uncertain of permissions for any material, please contact us.
