Copyright and writing a thesis

Some postgraduate study programs at Monash, such as the Doctoral Degree program, require that students grant Monash University a non-exclusive licence to publish their thesis online in the ARROW open-access research repository, once the examination process is completed. An eThesis, as made available through the ARROW repository, is considered to be a publication.

Postgraduate students within the PhD program therefore need to ensure that they make all reasonable attempts during their candidature to obtain permission in writing and in advance of submission or completion, for any significant third-party copyright content that they intend to reproduce within the thesis. Evidence of the copyright status of any significant third-party content included within the thesis will need to be provided at the time of submission.

When do I need to get permission?
For what kinds of materials do I need permission?
Adaptations and transcriptions of third-party content
Flexible or open licensed content / content available with express permission for use
Who is the copyright owner?
Writing to copyright owners
What do I include in my permission request?

Tips on Seeking Permission from Copyright Owners

Permissions should be sought and obtained as early as possible, during the process of researching and preparing the thesis. Early consideration must also be given to the likely cost of obtaining some or all permissions for the third-party materials intended for inclusion within the thesis. It is essential that permissions are obtained in writing and are retained by the students, with copies supplied to the University if requested.

Permission is NOT assumed to be granted if

the person granting permission does not have the authority to do so
the copyright holder cannot be found or
if the copyright holder does not reply to a request.

When do I need to get permission?

When you are including content within your thesis which was authored or created by someone else (ie 'third-party' content, whether published or not)
When using third party material from a work of text and you want to use more than just a couple of quotes. There is no 'set amount' beyond which permission is required (or within which permission is not required), but as a general rule, if the amount of text taken from a single source work is more than 1% of that work, you will definitely need permission.
When the material you want to use is still within the duration of copyright protection. If it is out of copyright, you won't need permission.
When adapting a copyright work or creating a new work from the original source work (eg redrawing an original diagram, image or table; translating text into another language).

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Adaptations and transcriptions of third-party content

Permission is also required in cases where third-party content is adapted for use within the thesis: for example, translations of foreign languages; alterations or additions made to designs, maps, images or photos.

Similarly transcriptions made by the candidate from certain types of audio-visual materials, whether published or not, will require permission from the original creator/copyright-holder, producer or broadcaster, as the latter will retain copyright in the original audio-visual recording. Typically this might include transcripts made of ‘published’ or broadcast materials like TV or radio programs, from DVDs, CDs, webcasts or podcasts; and may include such unpublished materials as recordings of languages, interviews, songs, stories, wildlife, etc as held in library or archival collections or as retained by other organisations (medical or scientific research centres).

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For what kinds of materials do I need permission?

Third-party copyright material is, in effect, any content not of the candidate/student’s own creation, and can include:

Any significant amount of textual material whether published or not (archival records, collections of unpublished materials such as letters, diaries or manuscripts; text excerpts from books, articles, posters or other published matter; text from websites or other electronic documents; software code; tables containing text; collections or samples of data; surveys, questionnaires or interview scripts; screenplays, plays, poems song lyrics)
You need permission to reproduce, in the published thesis, quotes from text materials of between 50-100 words from a single source or 1% of the total source work.
Any type of visual content (images, maps, figures, diagrams, flow-charts, tables, photographs, graphs, graphic designs, logos, artworks)
Any type of audio-visual or interactive content which is then displayed and/or transcribed into the thesis (computer games, DVDs, CDs, CD-ROMs, films, programs recorded from TV and radio; content downloaded from interactive devices such as mobile phones, computers or games consoles)

And be aware that

A photo of a painting could include copyright in the underlying painting and separate copyright in the photo; even if the painting is out of copyright, the photo may still be protected by copyright
You can not assume that content made available on the Internet is free to reproduce or publish
Don't assume a site has permission to provide content that is clearly not their own: if you want to use that same content in your thesis, you'll need to find the real owner and ask for their permission.
If images are sourced from an image database or obtained under a licence eg creative commons or flickr, you must follow the relevant terms and conditions of that database or licence
If you purchase a survey online, you need to follow the terms and conditions of purchase eg psychological tests sold online for use in teaching may not be available for research purposes

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Flexible or open licensed content

In some cases, third-party content may already come with a licence from the copyright holder which permits publication for non-commercial purposes or adaptation of the work for non-commercial purposes (eg CreativeCommons licensed content, GNU-GPL software or other ‘open content’ licensed materials). Candidates are advised to check any licences made available with third-party content (eg software, image collections, online collections of documents or data, etc) and be aware of the licence limitations or restrictions.

Express permissions

Many websites have copyright information in their footers or on the home page
These may give express permission to copy information from the website with different conditions
You can use this material if you follow those terms and conditions
Keep a print out of the website terms
Software licences may allow copies to be made for research. You would need to keep a written record of the terms of permission
CD-ROMs or DVDs of materials may allow reproduction in research. Again you would need to check the terms of use
Material could be available under a Creative Commons, GNU/GPL or other licence. You would need to be very careful about the licence terms. For example, can you change material? Must you make the new material you create available under same terms?

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Who is the copyright owner?

Usually the creator or author of work BUT

The copyright owner can assign (sell) rights eg author assigns copyright to publisher
The copyright owner can licence (rent) rights eg author licences company to perform script for a limited period of time
There is no register or list of records of Copyright owners
Publishers are often the copyright owners
Production companies will often be copyright owners of film and TV programs. They may know the copyright owner if they cannot give permission themselves.
An employer usually owns copyright in work made by employees as part of their duties
Galleries or museums may be able to give permission for artistic works or put you in touch with the copyright owner.
For websites contact the webmaster or the designated contact for permission or legal matters for the site. Although they may not be the copyright owner, they may have contact details for owners.
If there is no citation information on a website, such as the name of the copyright owner, this could indicate the material is online without permission

Collecting societies may have information about copyright owners and how you can ask for permission. In some cases they may licence the material for use themselves:

Artistic works from Viscopy
Photographs from AIPP and APACA
Musical works and sound recordings from APRA/AMCOS
Print material from CAL
Broadcast material from Screenrights

Keep a record of any searches or attempts to contact the copyright owner and any records relating to the permissions process.

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Writing to copyright owners

Use email as you then retain a record of your correspondence.
You may need to follow up with a phone call to remind copyright owners of your request.
Often publisher websites or those of other organisations will have an email address or an online form for permission requests.
Leave yourself plenty of time for permission – the copyright owner may be difficult to find or may not respond
You cannot assume permission is granted because you do not get any reply to your request

What do I include in my permission request?

Your name and contact details
Your organisation i.e. Monash University
A clear description or identification of the specific material/s you want to reproduce in the published thesis
A statement indicating that the material will be published online by Monash as part of the degree program: eg "permission is requested for online publication, as my thesis is to be published within the Monash ARROW research repository where research papers are made available to the public for free"
If changes are made to the material, why those changes are important; or else indicate that the material will be reproduced unchanged.
That full credit for the source will be given and the acknowledgement will be in the form that the copyright owner requires

You may wish to devise your own permission letters based on the following templates:

Further detailed advice is available to students and supervisors from the Monash Research Graduate School website, and see, in particular, Chapter 6 'Intellectual Property' and Chapter 7 'Thesis and examination matters' within the the Monash PhD Handbook.

The Oak Law Project at QUT have written a copyright guide for students who need to deposit their thesis in an open access repository. It has useful information about research and getting permission from copyright owners, including more template letters.

Oak Law Copyright Guide for Research Students

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