Respecting Intellectual Property Rights
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to ensure that all members of the GUST Community adhere to requirements relating to the copying, communication or performance of copyrighted material; and that the Community members make fair and legal use of copyrighted material in their study, research, and teaching activities.
Application & Compliance
- This policy applies to all GUST Community members (staff, students, faculty, alumni, and external users).
- It also applies to any person/s participating in authorized GUST business or activities (visitors, part time staff, service providers or contractors).
- All GUST Community members are expected to comply with the Copyright Policy, as the Library will bear no responsibility related to those who do not adhere to the terms mentioned herein.
Exceptions
This policy does not apply to any overseas operations; as the copyright laws in the concerned territory would then apply.
Fair Use Policy
Using copyrighted material in assessments and classwork (including essays, assignments and presentations), constitutes as " research and study" purposes, which is permitted under the Copyright Act, provided that the following Fair Use requirements are understood and satisfied:
Fair Use of copying text from the Internet or book chapters from textbooks.
- Material on the Internet is protected by copyright and is subject to copyright law.
- Including the source information and acknowledging the creator of the work is a legal requirement under the moral rights clause of the Copyright Act. Failure to cite the source of an original work may lead to allegations of plagiarism and copyright infringement.
- Before downloading or printing any copyrighted material, always check the terms of use section of the website or source.
- Usually, you are permitted to download or print the material for personal use for research and study purposes.
- If the terms of use are not specified, as per the Copyright Act, you may copy a reasonable portion, that is, one chapter or 10% of the pages.
- If the work is not paginated, you may copy 10% of the words in the document.
Fair Use of copying other types of materials
Other types of copyrighted material may consist of diagrams, illustrations, maps, clips from movies or TV, sound recordings, etc. The amount you may copy of these materials is not specified in the Copyright Act.
There are five factors to consider, and then you should decide if your usage constitutes as fair use:
- The purpose and character of your usage;
- The nature of the material;
- The possibility of obtaining the material commercially;
- The effect of the usage upon the potential market for the material;
- The amount copied in relation to the whole of the source material.
You may copy the material, under the research or study exception in the Copyright Act, provided that you:
- Observe the limits of copying as per those outlined above;
- Use the copied material for research or study purposes only;
- Do not use the copied material for other purposes, such as publication or performance;
- Acknowledge the original creator and cite the source of the works.
Under fair use, you usually cannot:
- Make additional copies of copyright material to share with others.
- Upload or post the copyrighted work to blogs, websites or social media without citing the source: this is considered to be a republication of the original work, which is the exclusive right of the copyright owner.
- It is also considered to be no longer copying for research or study purposes.
- If you need to share copyrighted material with others (eg: a class, project group or team), we recommend:
- Sharing the source URL or DOI,
- Sharing the citation or reference information,
- Obtaining permission from the copyright owner to share the works.
Publishing Your Work
Before publishing your work, you will need to consider the issue of obtaining permission for any copyright material that you have used in your work. Generally, you do not need to obtain permission if you paraphrase or summarize someone else’s work, unless you follow the structure of the original work closely. However, you will still need to acknowledge the source of the work in the form of a citation and in your reference list.
If your work is to be published by an international publisher:
- The copyright legislation in the country of publication will determine the permission you have to obtain.
- Some UK and US publishers allow you to quote a minimum number of words from a publication (often between 400-500 words) before they require you to obtain permission.
- Most publishers require you to obtain permission to use photographs, images, diagrams or charts from copyright works.
- Be guided by your publisher – visit their website or ask your editor for advice.
- Obtaining permission or clearances to use material in publications is time consuming, so it’s worth noting these few points now, as they will save you time later.
- Keep accurate citations – you’ll then be ready to go when you need to contact publishers. Remember, you don’t need permission to use out of copyright works.
- If you have a choice, use works which no longer fall under copyright. Look for works where the copyright owner has given a license for non-commercial use, such as items published under a Creative Commons license.
- Check the terms of use for websites, as the owners may give you a license to re-use material for non-commercial purposes.
Disclaimer
The contents of this policy are not intended to constitute, and receipt of it does not constitute, a contract for legal advice or establishment of a legal relationship. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the information in this communication is accurate, GUST Library does not accept responsibility for any action or inaction, legal or otherwise, based on the information contained in this document.
