QUT Copyright Guide
Videorecording of lectures - copyright issues
Information for teaching staff
Background on copyright
When you arrange for your lecture to be videorecorded, you need to consider copyright
issues. Some of these issues do not arise in the delivery of a lecture but do so when a
recording is made. Others arise in the delivery of a lecture, but because an unrecorded
lecture is ephemeral, they do not come to the foreground.
Under Australian law, copyright protection is automatically given to “works” and “subject
matter other than works”. The class of material called “works” comprises four types of works
– literary, dramatic, musical and artistic. A work does not attract copyright protection unless it
is fixed in a material form.
Subject matter other than works comprises four types of material – cinematograph films,
sound recordings, broadcasts, and published editions of works. A videorecording falls into
the category of cinematograph films.
Copyright consists of a bundle of rights that belong exclusively to the copyright owner. The
rights that impinge upon the face to face delivery of lectures and the videorecording of them
are:
 Performance in public
 Reproduction in a material form
 Communication to the public
To communicate to the public means to make available online or electronically transmit to the
public.
For more background information on copyright, consult the General Information pages in the
QUT Copyright Guide online.
Lectures and copyright
(a) Your own words and visual material
As noted above, a work must be fixed in a material form for copyright to subsist in it. Your
lecture as spoken is arguably not a copyright work as it is not fixed in a material form.
However, once it is videorecorded, it is fixed in the material form of the videorecord, and
attracts copyright protection. The videorecording itself enjoys copyright protection as a
cinematograph film. The intellectual content as expressed in your words probably has
separate protection as a literary work, like the script of a documentary film.
If you have produced your own visual material to use in your lecture, it has already been fixed
in material form and the videorecording simply makes a reproduction of it.
According to Australian law, the employer is the owner of copyright in works produced by an
employee in the course of their duties. Consequently, under the QUT Intellectual Property
Policy, QUT claims the copyright in course materials produced by QUT staff. In the case of a
recording of a lecture, QUT will own the copyright in the recording and arguably also in the
embodied literary work - the intellectual content as expressed by the lecturer in spoken words
and reduced to a material form in the video.
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Videorecording lectures
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QUT Copyright Guide
(b) Other people’s material used in your lecture
In your lectures you might use materials produced by other people, or you might have a guest
speaker. Once you include presentations and material by others who are not QUT staff, the
copyright situation gets much more complicated.
If you have a guest speaker, the guest’s words will be captured in the recording and thereby
fixed in a material form. A copyright literary work is now created and it belongs to the guest
speaker, not to QUT. You need to get the permission of the speaker to record the
presentation and to distribute copies. There is a form for this available at the end of this
document.
If you have scanned images from published hardcopy material or copied published digital
images into your digital slides for presentation in your lecture, you have already made a
reproduction of the material and your videorecording will simply make another reproduction.
You may reproduce text and graphic material for educational purposes only with permission
of the copyright owner or in reliance on the statutory licence in Part VB of the Copyright Act
(the CAL licence). In this case, the copyright situation is the same in the live lecture and in
the videorecording. The reproduction and communication of images under Part VB is
explained in the guideline Images – Use in teaching sites within the Teaching Support
section of the QUT Copyright Guide.
If you project published transparencies in your lecture using a slide projector, that does not
impinge on any copyright because artistic works copyright does not include the right of public
display. However, if you capture the transparencies in your video, you have made a
reproduction of them, which may be done in reliance on the statutory licence in Part VB of the
Copyright Act (the CAL licence) in certain circumstances. The reproduction and
communication of images under Part VB is explained in guideline Images – Use in teaching
sites within the Teaching Support section of the QUT Copyright Guide.
If you show a film or video in your lecture, you do not need the permission of the copyright
owner because a screening in a face to face class as part of a course of educational
instruction is deemed not to be a public screening under Australian law. However, if you
capture the film in a video of your lecture, you have thereby reproduced the film. You may not
reproduce a film without the permission of the copyright owner.
If you play a sound recording in your lecture, you do not need the permission of the
copyright owner because playing a recording in a face to face class as part of a course of
educational instruction is deemed not to be in public under Australian law. However, if you
capture the sound recording in a video of your lecture, you have thereby reproduced it. You
may not reproduce a sound recording without the permission of the copyright owner of the
sound recording and the owner of any work embodied in the recording. For music recordings,
QUT now has a blanket licensing agreement with music copyright collecting societies that
permits reproduction of sound recordings of musical works. For further guidance, consult the
Music recordings page within the Teaching Support section of the QUT Copyright Guide.
If you perform a musical work as part of your teaching, you do not need the permission of
the copyright owner because a performance in face to face teaching is deemed not to be in
public. However, if you record your performance, you have made a mechanical reproduction
of the musical work, which requires the permission of the copyright owner. QUT now has a
blanket licensing agreement with music copyright collecting societies that permits
reproduction of performances of musical works – the Tertiary Music Licence. For further
guidance, consult the Music recordings page within the Teaching Support section of the QUT
Copyright Guide.
If you display an original work of art in your lecture, that does not impinge on any copyright
because artistic works copyright does not include the right of public display. However, if you
capture the artwork in your video, you have made a reproduction of it, which requires
copyright owner permission.
If you link live to the internet in your lecture, that probably does not impinge on any copyright.
However, if you capture the internet material in your video, you have made a reproduction of
it, which requires copyright owner permission.
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If you have the radio or television on in your lecture, that does not impinge on any copyright.
However, if you capture the broadcast in your video, you have made a reproduction of it and
any copyright works or subject matter contained within it. Fortunately, under the statutory
licence in Part VA of the Copyright Act (the Screenrights licence), educational institutions are
allowed to make off-air recordings of radio and television broadcasts, so long as they comply
with the marking and labelling requirements. AV Services should be able to assist with this.
If you play an off-air recording in your lecture, that does not impinge on any copyright, so
long as the recording was made in accordance with the provisions of Part VA of the Copyright
Act. If you capture the recording in your video, you have simply made another reproduction of
it, which is permitted under the Act, so long as you comply with the marking and labelling
requirements. These are explained in the guideline TV and Radio within the Teaching
Support section of the QUT Copyright Guide. AV Services should be able to assist with this.
(c) Use of student work in a lecture
Students own the copyright in their own work. Any reference to copyright owners in the
discussion above includes students. You should obtain permission from students to
reproduce their creations.
Realtime transmission of a lecture
Realtime transmission refers to those occasions when a lecture is delivered live in one
location and at the same time transmitted by video to a group of students in another location,
without being captured in a videorecording. For copyright compliance purposes, the realtime
transmitted lecture is the same as a live lecture.
Distribution of the videorecording of the lecture
You might consider distributing your lecture video in a number of ways:
 Screening the video to an assembled class
 Putting a copy in the library for students to borrow
 Making multiple copies on DVD and sending them to remote students
 Putting a copy on a streaming server for online streaming
 Putting a copy on your unit website for downloading
The first activity – screening the video to an assembled class – does not impinge on any
further rights of copyright owners beyond those already involved in making the recording.
The second activity – putting a copy in the library for students to borrow – does not impinge
on rights of copyright owners beyond those already involved in making the recording.
However, it would be a courtesy to guest lecturers to inform them that the video would be
available in the library when they give permission to record their presentation.
The third activity – making multiple copies on DVD for sending to remote students – is making
further reproductions. You may do this only if all copyright owners have given permission for
multiple copies and distribution to students.
The last two activities – making available online by streaming or for download– involve
another right - the right of communication to the public – in addition to the reproduction right.
You must have permission of the copyright owners to communicate the videorecording in
addition to making the recording.
The only cases where permission to put online is not required are cases where the material
has been reproduced under Part VA of the Copyright Act (recorded broadcasts), Part VB of
the Copyright Act (text and images), or the Tertiary Music Licence.
If your lecture recording has captured music as permitted by the Tertiary Music Licence, the
recording may not be made available online in a downloadable format. However, it may be
streamed.
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Declaration by lecturer who requests video recording
Lecturer’s name_______________________________________________
I request Audiovisual Services to make a video recording of my lectures for
Unit______________________
for Semester_______________________
These lectures will contain
__ only material created by myself or other QUT staff
__ material created by people other than QUT staff (“copyright material”)
I declare that the inclusion of copyright material in the videorecordings will comply with
copyright law. I understand that this means that for each item of copyright material:
a) I have obtained the written permission of the copyright owners to reproduce it in the
video; or
b) I have ascertained that its inclusion would comply with the statutory licence in Part VA
of the Copyright Act (off-air recording); or
c) I have ascertained that its inclusion would comply with the statutory licence in Part VB
of the Copyright Act; or
d) I have ascertained that its inclusion would comply with the Tertiary Music Licence; or
e) I must request AV Services not to include it.
Copyright material that should not be included is identified below and I request AV staff to
exclude it from the lecture videos.
Signature of lecturer ___________________________________________________
Date _______________________
Items not to be included in videorecordings of lectures
Week
Date
Description of item
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Permission to record a lecture by a person not employed by QUT
I………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(Name)
of………………………………………………………………………………………………
(Address)
give my permission for QUT to record by video or audio my lecture or presentation
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
(Title of lecture or presentation)
for …………………………………….. on…………………… (date of recording).
(QUT unit of study)
I further agree that QUT may, for the educational purposes of QUT only,
Play in public
Transcribe into written form
reproduce for QUT students and staff
make available online or electronically transmit to QUT staff and students only
the whole or part of this recording.
(Please strike out any of the above uses for which you decline permission and initial them.)
Signed …………………………………………………………………………………………..
(by the presenter)
Date: ……………………………….
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