Copyright is the legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.

What this means to you:
The person who created the book, play, song, website, painting… is the only one who is allowed to make, or give permission to others to make copies to sell or distribute.

In Australia copyright is free and happens automatically when you create any physical resource. This includes electronic resources.

As a student, copyright law allows you to have reasonable access to information for the purposes of study. You also own any material you create as part of your schoolwork.

It is acceptable to photocopy or print electronic information for “research or study”, provided this is fair to the copyright owner (your use doesn’t compromise the economic interests of the owner).

You can make a copy of an article (or multiple articles dealing with the same subject matter) from a magazine, or a reasonable portion of a literary, dramatic or musical work, in electronic form, for the purposes of research of study.

A “reasonable portion” of a literary or dramatic work in electronic form is generally taken as 10 per cent of the words in the work, or a chapter of the work. For printed literary, dramatic and musical works, you can copy 10 per cent of the pages or up to one chapter.

The websites below can help you understand more about your rights and obligations under copyright law.

Cyberbee is an American site, so for detailed information you should check one of the Australian sites listed below that has the latest information on Australian copyright law which underwent a major reform in 2007.

The Australian Copyright Council online information centre explains how copyright works in Australia.

The Smartcopying website has information on what is and is not allowed under the latest copyright act.