Teachers: Copyright and Plagiarism

On this page you can learn about the do's and don'ts when using copyrighted material in your teaching at the Royal Danish Academy.

• Use of printed material in teaching
• Use of licensed, electronic material in teaching
• Use of images in teaching

Copyright is a right attached to an original work. Copyright for a work expires 70 years after the author's death. After the 70 years, the rules of droit moral apply, which means that the author is still entitled to be credited when the work is used and that the work must not be used in an offensive way.

Copying or scanning from printed texts

• The limit for how much may be copied or scanned is up to 20% (but no more than 50 pages) of a publication per term
• The file format must be locked so that no changes can be made to the scanned text
• Access to the material must only be possible via password
• The scanned material may be printed both centrally and decentralized by the Royal Academy's students and employees
• Newspapers may not be scanned

Other

• Regardless of the length of a publication, 4 pages must always be copied, printed or scanned
• E-bøger, som sælges kapitelvis, må ikke kopieres??
• You may not make copies of works (neither journals, newspapers or books) of what is already licensed in electronic editions
• Always remember the source reference: Title, author, publisher/publisher and year of publication (e.g. copy of title page + colophon)

The above represents the main points about copying, scanning and printing according to agreements between Copydan and The Royal Academy

Electronic materials such as e-books, databases and electronic articles have negotiated licenses that describe exactly how they may be used. However, you can always legally deep link to these materials and thus share them with others.

You are allowed to

• Print, download or make a copy for your own use.
• Cite the e-material.
• Make deep links to article or book chapter e.g. for use in teaching. 

You are not allowed to

• E-mail, copy, print or otherwise distribute e-books or e-articles to anyone other than yourself.
• Share e-books or e-articles on open websites, i.e. no uploading of PDF files.
• Share e-books or e-articles on closed websites, e.g. in RUM, even if they are password protected. PDF files may not be uploaded for use in e.g. education. Deep links must be used here.

The Royal Academy has an agreement with VISDA.

This means that you as a teacher must use legal digital images that are posted on the internet. Images are defined as fine art, drawings, illustrations, photographs, etc.

You can also make copies of images found in books, articles, postcards, etc. and use in e.g. your PowerPoints or in module rooms.

If the image is more than 70 years old, the copyright protection has expired and you are free to use the image.

However the image must not be altered to a large extent or offend the artist.

If you as a teacher would like to learn more about e-learning in general, visit UBVA's site Undervislovligt.dk (teach legally)

Here you will find legal experts' opinions on, for example, the use of images in teaching, the use of radio/TV, the use of webcasts, your own rights as a teacher, etc.

Learn how to reference correctly and how to provide sufficient documentation in your assignments.

Stopplagiat.nu is made in collaboration between Danish research libraries and lecturers from the University of Southern Denmark, the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University.

If you have created a work yourself - it can be a text, a picture, a PowerPoint presentation, a video etc. and want to share it with others without them having to ask you for permission, a Creative Commons license can be a solution.

Creative Commons is a standardized method for marking the extent to which one accepts that one's work is used, shared and copied.

Creative Commons license lets you tailor your copyright to your work as you wish. Once you, as an author, have assigned your work a CC license, you cannot change the conditions. This means that one cannot later create another license for the same work, so consider carefully what you want others to be able to do with your work.