What copyright rules apply to my lecture?
Under NZ law, you can perform, play or show a work in the course of your work for the University, as long as the audience is made up of students and/or staff. This means you can use most material commonly used: you can play an audio or video recording, provided you are using an original, not a copy, and the terms stated on the disk don't prohibit this; you can click on a link to display a web site or show a streamed video or other internet content; you can display an image, graph, table etc.; and so on.
Commonly you might provide elements of your lecture to your students, such as:
- lecture slides - for more information on how copyright applies to these check out slides from a staff training session (with notes) on lectures and lecture slides.
- video or audio recordings, which can be made using Otago Capture Lecture Recording - you should be familiar with your rights and responsibilities as outlined in the Recording of Lectures and other Teaching Activities Policy, which is also covered in the slides linked to in the previous bullet point.
Note that a lecture open to the public, such as an Inaugural Professorial Lecture, is a 'public performance' and therefore you should be careful when using material for which you are not the copyright holder. You may be able to use the material under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act - for a detailed explanation check out your responsibilities when using others' material. If the University wishes to record and distribute your lectures it will first obtain your consent.
When recording a Special Event organised or hosted by the University of Otago (i.e., an Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Distinguished Research Medal Lecture or other lectures open to the public), an agreement form must be completed for copyright compliance purposes.
View more information on Copyright at Otago webpages
What copyright applies to a lecture of mine uploaded to YouTube etc.?
In making material available on a publicly accessible platform, care must be taken with material for which others' hold the copyright because the medium makes material available to anyone and therefore no longer purely for educational purposes. In other words, something you can legally show in a lecture (such as a commercial DVD) may not be able to be distributed without permission outside of an educational context. Contact the Copyright Officer if you have questions about this.