Copyright at UNSW

It is the responsibility of all students and staff to comply with copyright law. This is clearly stated in the Acceptable use of information and communication technology resources policy which applies to staff and students, Code of conduct which applies to staff only and Student code of conduct policy which applies to students only. For information on how a complaint may be managed and investigated, see the Complaint Management and Investigations Policy and Procedure. 

The University provides students with access to computer systems and facilities for academic and administrative purposes. Individuals who are found to be using the University's systems to engage in conduct which infringes copyright, are exposing themselves and the University to legal action. Under the University's Acceptable use of UNSW ICT resources policy, copyright infringement by students will be treated as student misconduct.

Course sharing websites are used to upload, share and sell course materials such as lecture notes, course outlines and old exam papers. Course materials that are produced by UNSW staff in the course of their employment are protected by copyright and can only be used for education and research purposes.

Uploading or sharing any UNSW course materials on these websites constitutes as a copyright infringement.  In addition, downloading course content from these websites and presenting it as our own constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person's work or ideas as your own and is a serious breach of ethics at UNSW. 

As with other forms of plagiarism and copyright infringement, there are serious consequences for students who use course sharing websites. For more information, please see the UNSW student code of conduct and Complaints Management and Investigations Policy & Procedure.  

For more information on how to avoid plagiarism, see ELISE | Informing your studies.

Staff

If any of your course materials have been uploaded to these websites, you will need to claim a copyright infringement to the content provider and ask for the material to be removed. The terms of use for these websites should have information on how to claim an infringement.

If the content provider is an American company the claim should be labelled as a DMCA notice (under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

For more information, see the UNSW intellectual property policy or contact your Outreach librarian.

UNSW staff and students can contact copyright@unsw.edu.au for assistance with a copyright query or to arrange a copyright information session.