Y9 - Find Your Passion: Using Images

You will not infringe copyright if you use material for the purposes of research or study, provided that your use is fair.

The Copyright Act provides special provisions that allow people to use copyright material for the purpose of research or study without infringing copyright, provided the use is “fair”. Whether or not your use is fair will depend on all the circumstances.   

If you want to use material that is not textual (for example a drawing or photograph), you will also need to consider if the use is fair.

The Act does set out some factors for working out whether, in all the circumstances, your use is fair in relation to reproductions of copyright material for the purpose of research or study.

These are:

1. the purpose and character of the dealing (for example, copying in connection with a course is more likely to be fair than copying for research which may be used commercially);
2. the nature of the work (for example, it may be less fair to copy a work resulting from a high degree of skill than a mundane work);
3. the possibility of obtaining the work within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price (generally, it is unlikely to be fair to copy all or most of a work that you can buy);
4. the effect of the dealing on the potential market for, or value of, the work (making a copy is unlikely to be fair if the publisher sells or licenses copies, for example from its website); and
5. in a case where part only of the work is copied, the amount and substantiality of the part copied in relation to the whole work (it is less fair to copy a large or important part of the work than to copy a small or unimportant part).

SOURCE

Creative Commons (CC) licences allow creators to give the public permission to share and use their work with conditions of their choice.

• Creators can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format; they may also remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
• The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.
• The license terms include giving appropriate credit, providing a link to the licence, and indicating if changes were made.
• You must not suggest the licensor endorses you or your use. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
• You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

In copyright terms, a licence means a permission to use the copyright material in particular ways. A contract is an agreement binding on the parties.

Remember: The licence and not the Copyright Act will most often determine what you can and can’t do with the material