Copyright and the LMS

Intellectual property in the LMS

All course material on the LMS is the intellectual property of the University and the teaching staff who have created it. Teaching materials include the subject content which you create and share with students through the LMS, such as lecture notes, PowerPoint presentations, subject guides, examination marking guides, and subject readers.

The University, under the terms of the Copyright Act 1968, is permitted to allow third party material (such as journal articles) to be used for teaching and educational purposes, according to strict guidelines. A complete guide to the use of third party materials is available from the Copyright Office. The University Library provides a Readings Online service which can create electronic copies of your subject's required and recommended readings for you to upload to your subject's LMS site. Readings Online staff will provide this material for you in strict accord with the University's copyright obligations.

Readings Online

The University Library provides a Readings Online service which can create electronic copies of your subject's required and recommended readings for you to upload to your subject's LMS site. Readings Online staff will provide this material for you in strict accord with the University's copyright obligations. This service is the simplest way to ensure readings in your subject compile with copyright.

Links to websites

It is permitted to link to websites, so long as you do not link to infringing material. Linking to infringing material may be seen as promoting or authorising infringement. Ensure that websites that you are linking to are legitimate.

Broken links

If website links are not working, it is likely that the material on the site has been deleted or moved. You will need to search for an alternative and create a new link in the LMS.

Note: All links to external web sites should open in a new browser page, rather than within the LMS subject page.

You can check for broken links in your LMS subject via the course link validator.

Journal articles, book chapters and other text based material

• It is permitted to scan print versions of material then upload them to the LMS, if you follow the restrictions on amounts of material used, give a full bibliographic citation, display a copyright notice, restrict access only to members of the University, and register your use of the item with the University Copyright office (see below for details).
• It may be permitted to download electronic versions of text based material and then upload them to the LMS for students to access, but you will need to check the license conditions first. See this guide for instructions.
• It is permitted to link to electronic versions of journal articles, book chapters and other text based materials that you find available via the web.

Scanned versions from print sources uploaded to your subject

1. Ensure the amount that has been uploaded is permitted under the copyright limits.
2. Ensure that the material has a full bibliographic citation.
3. Check that the material has a copyright notice attached.

Electronic versions uploaded to your subject

Check that the uploaded version is from an electronic source where the license conditions allow the item to be uploaded to the LMS.

Licence = allow

1. The same limits/conditions apply as for scanned versions from print sources (see previous section).

Licence = does not allow

1. Delete the link to the file on the page(s) in your subject.
2. Delete the file from the Files area in your subject.
3. Investigate the option of linking to the material instead (see following section).

Links to electronic material

1. Ensure the websites you are linking to are legitimate.
2. Fix the link if necessary.
3. Ensure the link is set to open in a new browser window.

Images

It is permitted to upload images to your LMS subject under certain conditions:

• If using an image from a print source (for example, a textbook), the whole image can be uploaded if it cannot be separately purchased at an ordinary commercial price within a reasonable time.
• If using an image from an electronic source (for example, a website), the whole image can be uploaded. There is no need to check whether or not is separately available.

In both cases you will also need to:

1. Ensure that the image has a full bibliographic citation.
2. Check that the image has a copyright notice attached.
3. Register the image with the Copyright Office.

Note: If you link to an image rather than take a copy and upload, you then deal with it in the same way as links to electronic material above (i.e. no need to register use with the Copyright Office).

Embedded material

Embedded material is where you have ‘shared’ an item from a page (e.g. YouTube), or you have added some source code into the LMS content page so as to display an item from another website.

When you embed material you are not reproducing a copy of it, rather, you are linking to it in a more complex way. In essence, code has been added to a page that asks the source, i.e. Flickr or YouTube, to show the item in your page.

This is a simple and easy way to make material available on your page without the hassle of downloading and uploading then dealing with the copyright requirements. However, it also means that should the original material be removed, you will lose access to the resource.

If you wish to embed material in the LMS from YouTube, Vimeo or Flickr:

1. Click the Record/Upload Media button.
2. Select Upload/Record Media.
3. Select the Embed tab.
4. Paste the embed code into the Embed Code window, then click Submit.

If you have been given the HTML code for embedding some other resource, it can be as simple as switching to the raw HTML editor when editing an item and pasting the code.

If you have embedded material in your LMS

1. Ensure the websites you are linking to are legitimate.
2. Ensure they have a link to the original source website of the material.

More information

To find full details of copyright compliance in the LMS visit the University Copyright Office website.