Student Lectures vs Public Lectures – They are more different than you think!

We’ve all gotten very used to (hopefully!) what you can and cannot use copyright wise in student lectures or tutorials.  Many people are unaware of the difference in giving that sort of lecture and a public lecture.  We commonly hear that a public lecture is educational, so it’s okay to just cite the content right? Nope!  ‘Fraid not, it’s actually far more restrictive than that.

The Illusion of Lecture by ransomtech (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/10075702@N00/6841686779/)

Student Lectures

In a student lecture, you can show a literary, dramatic, artistic or musical work, play a film, sound recording or broadcast.  This kind of use is covered by section 28 of the Australian Copyright Act.  Additionally, the Part VA & VB statutory licences, allow us to reproduce radio and TV broadcasts images and textual material.  The statutory licences allow you to make copies to head out in classes, make copies to use in class (for example include an image in a powerpoint) and also to include material as part of recording of the lecture via Lecture Capture.

The key to why we’re allowed to use copyright material  in student lectures under the Act is that the both lecture and access to any copyright material is restricted to students.  If we give exactly the same lecture but open it to members of the general public, we can no longer rely on s 28 and the Part VA and VB statutory licences.

There are some limits on the types and amount of material that you can use in class.  What are those limits? – you can find that out by visiting our webpage on limits for teaching.

You should always provide acknowledgements for the works you use (on or near the work – which can mean in a slide at the end of your power point)

If you’re recording your lecture and making it available on the LMS – make sure you read our pages on recording lectures and our page on compliance and uploading content to the LMS.

So essentially, so long as you’re sourcing your content from legitimate sources (legally uploaded), obeying any limits for making copies of material and acknowledging your sources, you’re okay.

Public Lectures

In a public lecture, there are very very limited provisions in the Copyright Act that allow you to use copyright material. The rules that cover student lectures do not apply because the lecture is open to the general public.  So if you want to show images, music or film clips  in a public lecture, consider using content that:

• You or the University owns copyright in.  University copyright owned material should only be used for University business –  check with us if you’re unsure
• Is “copyright friendly” –  that is the creator has made their work available for use by other people. – The creator can do this either by licensing under Creative Commons or a similar licence scheme or by including a statement about the use of their work in the terms and conditions or copyright information.
• Is in the ‘public domain’ (meaning the copyright in the work has expired or the creator of the work has waived their rights over the content).
• You have a licence or permission from the copyright owner to use.

If the content you wish to use doesn’t fall under one of those categories, then come and talk to us as we can help you to locate material that you can use.