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Copyright for Teaching Staff

Copyright information and guidance for teaching and learning

Copyright Compliance in Recording & Streaming Lectures

Recorded lectures are different to live lectures

Live, face to face lectures are not restricted in the use of copyright material. You can show or perform copyright material, such as films in lecturers or tutorials. You can show an excerpt of the work, or the work in full. This is as long as the audience is restricted to students and it is for educational purposes. 

Recording lectures that contain copyright material must comply with certain conditions. The restrictions are the same as if you are making the material available on LearnJCU. 

If you record your lectures, or they are automatically recorded by JCU lecture capture for later streaming and/or downloading, you must make sure that only authorised copyright material is included in the recording that is distributed to students.

In the following, ‘streaming’ includes the availability of a lecture recording for live viewing, and the facility for students to download a lecture recording for later viewing. In JCU's current lecture capture system the default setting is that students may only stream the video, meaning they can watch it and pause, rewind, forward etc, but a copy is not downloaded onto their computer or device they are watching it on. The lecturer may change this setting to make the lecture video available to download if they wish. 

What this means:

  • If you use third party material in a lecture, you must add the copyright notice to the beginning of the recording.
  • For audio-visual content, you should only use broadcast materials (including "catch-up") that have been recorded or obtained through a service like ClickView (contact the Library for assistance). DVDs and streaming media (e.g. Netflix) are not covered by the educational licence, so they cannot be copied (see below for more details)
  • For material you can copy, you should avoid copying the entire work, but only use what is needed for educational purposes
  • You may need to edit your lecture recording to cut out parts (or the whole) of the third-party material to make the recording copyright compliant
  • Recorded third-party materials in your lectures must only be made available to students in your class through a JCU system (i.e., a Panopto recording hosted on your class's LearnJCU site).

Streaming Lectures Containing Images & Diagrams

When showing third-party material such as diagrams and images in a lecture that is being captured, you must:

  • ensure that the required copyright warning notice (section 113P) is displayed before the lecture is viewed or downloaded by students (e,g, you may insert a slide that contains the notice at the start of your presentation)
  • acknowledge the author of each work so that you abide by the moral rights clauses of the Copyright Act. You can do this by including a citation in the Powerpoint, or by making an announcement in class. 

You can copy diagrams and figures by hand from third-party copyright material during a lecture but if you capture these with a document camera or other means and make them available online to students you must follow these procedures.

If you are using publisher provided slides that are part of a textbook package and the publisher has allowed it, you can record their slides without the section 11P notice. Currently the following publisher has given written permission for use of a slide package in a recorded lecture:

  • Pearson

Streaming Lectures Containing Segments from Literary Works

The Copyright Act allows you to read from a literary work and to perform a dramatic work in a class or lecture. If you record a lecture containing excerpts from these works you must take the following actions:

  • observe the limits on copying set down in the Copyright Act
  • ensure that the copyright warning notice (s113P) is displayed before the students download the lecture (e.g. you can insert a slide into your presentation that includes the notice)
  • acknowledge the author of each work so that you abide by the moral rights clauses of the Copyright Act (you may acknowledge authors in a number of ways such as on a Powerpoint slide, or by projecting a list of references at the end of a lecture being recorded)

Streaming Commercially Produced DVDs

DVDs are not able to be copied under current educational licences and exceptions. They can be screened live in a lecture or streamed directly from the disc during an online lecture, but the recordings of the lecture must not include the contents of the DVDs.

  • Commercially produced DVDs can be shown in a class but they (including soundtrack) should not be recorded as part of the lecture
  • Commercially produced DVDs cannot be streamed via streaming services such as Panopto, without the copyright owner’s permission
  • Recording, copying, or streaming the saved content of a DVD without the copyright owner's permission is an infringement of copyright legislation and can incur severe penalties
  • If a licence to stream the material cannot be obtained, it may be possible to stream some or all of the film to students under s200AB, the flexible dealing section in the Copyright Act. A number of important tests have to be applied to each case before s200AB can be used. If you wish to stream a particular film and cannot obtain a licence, discuss your needs with the JCU Copyright Officer.

Streaming TV Broadcasts Recorded Off-Air Under Part VA of the Copyright Act

The statutory licence allows the reproduction and communication of broadcast material, including works screened on "catch-up" digital chanels (e.g. ABC iView, SBS On Demand, etc.).

  • Copies of TV broadcasts received in Australia can be shown in class and the soundtrack can be recorded as part of your lecture
  • Since the copy was recorded under the statutory licence it can be streamed to students in a secure environment such as Blackboard.
  • A copyright warning notice must be displayed before the file opens (this is not automatically included at the beginning of every lecture recording) - this can be added using the instructions in the link below, or by including the copyright notice as your first slide and "projecting" it at the start of the class.

Streaming Commercially Produced Streamed Content (Netflix, etc.)

Video-on-demand subscriptions services such as Netflix, Stan, Paramount+ etc. are not covered by the statutory licence or the PART VA scheme. The Terms of Use usually expressly forbid sharing the content with others (most require that it is "for your own personal use").

You cannot screen streamed content from a commercial video-on-demand service live in class unless the terms of use allow it.

If the content has been screened by a public broadcaster (e.g. a Netflix program was shown on SBS, or a Paramount+ program on Channel 10) and it is available to the public through those networks, then you can use the standard statutory licences to show the content in class. Additionally, if the content has been released on a DVD, you can screen part of the DVD live in class (but not make the recording of that content available for download).

But you cannot share the content from the streaming platforms, and you cannot make it available for download later.

N.B. When breaching the terms of service for a personal subscription, the repercussions can be very "personal" - you may find that, in addition to legal action being taken in regards to the breach of copyright and breach of contract, you have your subscription revoked and are banned from using the service in the future. For example, if you breach the terms of service for Netflix, your Netflix subscription can be cancelled and you can be banned from creating a new subscription.

Streaming Podcasts

You can stream the following podcasts:

A copyright warning notice must be displayed just before the podcast is downloaded by the students.

Streaming CDs and Sound Recordings

Under the Music Licence you can stream CDs and sound recordings to students and staff but: downloading of music files is not permitted lectures containing music within the scope of the Music Licence cannot be downloaded from an intranet or internet site. If your lectures include music used in accordance with the Music Licence, you must arrange for that lecture to be delivered via streaming only (See Copyright Guide, Section 13 Music.)

Copyright Warning Notice

The copyright warning notice for educational purposes should be used if you wish to make copyright material available online, to students for teaching purposes. An example of this might be your lecture PowerPoint presentation. 

Display the notice prominently for example as the first slide in the PowerPoint, or the cover sheet of a PDF. It should appear either before or at the same time as the copyright material is communicated appears on the screen. 

Any Readings you use under the Copyright Act have this notice inserted automatically, your lecture materials and recorded lectures do not. 

The warning reads: Commonwealth of Australia Copyright Regulations 1969. Warning: This material has been reproduced and communicated to you by or on behalf of James Cook University in accordance with section 113P of the Copyright Act 1968 (Act). The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further reproduction of communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice.

The text of the notice:

Commonwealth of Australia
Copyright Regulations 1969
WARNING
This material has been reproduced and communicated to you by or on behalf of James Cook University in accordance with section 113P of the Copyright Act 1968 (ACT).
The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further reproduction of communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act.
Do Not Remove This Notice

We acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and acknowledge Traditional Owners of the lands where our staff and students, live, learn and work.Acknowledgement of Country

Creative Commons Licence
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International License. Content from this Guide should be attributed to James Cook University Library. This does not apply to images, third party material (seek permission from the original owner) or any logos or insignia belonging to JCU or other bodies, which remain All Rights Reserved.

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