Research
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Creating a bibliography
Internal referencing
Copyright
Library
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We've touched on copyright in some of the sections of this unit.
What is copyright?
Copyright is protection of intellectual property. What it means is that if you create something, a piece of writing, a graphic, a photo, a piece of music, a play, a poem, in other words "a creative work", you have the right to control who can make copies of it and how many copies they can make. In some cases you can even charge a fee. Even if there is no copyright notice, or sign ©, everything literary, artistic, musical or dramatic created in any country of the world is protected by international copyright law.
If you would like to find out more details go to the Copyright Agency Australia at http://www.copyright.com.au/ which explains rights of intellectual property creators.
You can also consult http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html where Brad Templeton explains 11 myths about copyright.
Fair use
Students are allowed to copy under certain conditions. This is called "fair use". Basically you can copy it for an assignment, but you cannot get it published without obtaining permission.
Copying from the web
Even if you copy something under the fair use conditions, you must write the following information before or after the copyrighted item you obtained from the web.
- The title of the item
- The name of the author of the work, or the museum or library that holds the original
- The name of the site and the web address
- The date you accessed the site
"(Title of work). From (place), (www.address of site) Accessed ............... (your date)"
In this way you show your respect for the copyright held by the owner. If you were using the item in something you were publishing, either in print or on a webpage, you would need to ask the owner's permission and pay the cost they might charge.
Most copyright owners on the web are pretty generous especially if you are a student or teacher who wants to reproduce an item for educational use. Therefore, it is good to do them the courtesy of asking permission and asking how they want to be acknowledged. An email is a quick and easy way to write and ask for permission to reproduce copyrighted material.