Copyright at UNSW

Text works include books, journal articles, anthologies, sheet music, out of print, and website content.

UNSW has an agreement with the Copyright Agency that allows staff to copy and communicate a reasonable portion of text works for educational purposes under certain conditions, without the need to obtain permission from the copyright owner.

To meet our obligation under the agreement, all copying and communication of certain text works should be requested through Leganto.

Read further to find out more about the conditions and limits that apply.

Moral rights and attribution

Under the Copyright Act 1968, authors and artists have the right to be attributed or identified as the creator of their materials, to prevent others from being falsely attributed as the creator, and to ensure their materials are not subject to derogatory treatment. These rights are called moral rights and are separate to copyright protection.

To meet this obligation, attribute the work by providing enough information to identify the creator and the work e.g. author, title, publication year, source.

Under the Copyright agreement the staff can use printed text works and freely available online content in the following ways:

Classroom handouts

• print multiple copies of book chapters or articles to hand out to students, but limits must be observed (see below)
• perform literary and dramatic works during a lecture

Electronic course readings

UNSW is legally and contractually obliged to ensure all copying and communication done under the Copyright Agency agreement is centrally managed and kept in a single repository.  To meet this obligation, all scanned extracts of books and journals articles should be made available through Leganto, the University’s copyright compliance tool and reading list management system and not uploaded directly in a learning management system (i.e. Moodle).  

By using Leganto, Library staff can check that all digitised materials are copyright compliant, contain the required warning notices and assist in sourcing digital content were possible. 

For more information on how to use Leganto, see How to provide course resources for your students

When providing text works as course materials, the amount that can be copied and communicated depends on the type of material, whether it is from a print or digital source.  When copying and/or communicating copyright material, the limits apply on a course by course basis. 

Limits by text type

The following conditions apply: 

• Copying and communicating is done for educational purposes of the University
• Above limits are observed
• Access is restricted to UNSW staff and students e.g. password protection
• Digital copies display the Copyright Warning Notice for text and images (21KB PDF) 

UNSW Library subscribes to a large, diverse collection of electronic resources, such as databases, e-books and e-journals. Terms and conditions apply to electronic resources and are governed by commercial licence agreement.  

For subscribed e-resources, best practice is to create a link.  Some electronic resources licences do not allow for a pdf to be downloaded and placed on a learning management system (i.e. Moodle). When linking within Moodle, simply copy the Permalink provided. 

To find out how to create a link to subscribed resources in Leganto, see Leganto guide

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

Download a quick guide to copyright and teaching at UNSW (576KB PDF).

The Copyright Warning Notice that is used for Statutory Licence copying and communication is available for text and images (21KB PDF) and broadcasts (21KB PDF).