Legal Issues – Copyright
Task questions from NET11 – Module 3 - WWW Standards (Curtin University of Technology – 2009)
1) “Have you used images or words on your web page or website that contravene copyright laws?”
No, not at this stage. But one must consider plagiarism, copyright and IP (Intellectual Property) infringement laws prior to the use of what may be deemed as being owned by another party.
2) “Would you be in breach of copyright if you put the Curtin logo at the top of your web page for an assignment?”
According to the PDF brochure “A quick guide to Copyright for curtin students” issued by Curtin University – Legal & Compliance Services – September 2006, Click here to read, under Fair Dealing provisions it is permissable to:
“Copy and communicate any material in which Curtin owns the copyright (except confidential papers ect)”.
Based on the above, I would not be in breach of copyright laws if I copied the Curtin logo to my assignment page as it would be deemed as research or study.
However, if my web page contained advertising ect that may be generating income for my personal benefit, this may be a different matter as the logo may been seen as being used for commercial gain. Therefore, copyright laws would apply if permission had not been granted before doing so.
Another thought: My blog automatically generates links to “possibly related posts”. This is out of my control. How do I know that links to these posts do not contain advertising?
Further, as per section 5.2.2 of Curtin University’s Logo Use Procedures: (http://policies.curtin.edu.au/Logo Use Procedures)
“The University logo is an unalterable registered trademark, and improper or unauthorised use is regarded as a breach of these procedures”.
I would therefore, also need to ensure that, if copying the Curtin logo, it must be an unaltered copy.
Looking at it another way, if I was to place the Curtin logo on an assignment prepared by me, it could then be interpreted by a third party as being an officially authorised document that had been prepared and sanctioned by Curtin University, when in fact this would not be the case, unless prior permission had been granted.
As I am not authorised to prepare documentation on behalf of Curtin University, I would NOT be prepared to take this risk.
After reading the comments on the discussion board, the area of copyright can be very tricky indeed. In my opinion it is better to be safe than sorry.
It is also important,when creating your designs, logos ect for your web site to register them as quickly as possible.
