Text
When it comes to content writing, the majority of text should be original written material, and copying someone else’s material or text should be minimised to comply with legislated limits – see below.
IMPORTANT: Copyright and plagiarism
All copied text incurs a fee for TAFE Queensland as part of the Part VB license. For this reason using content under Part VB is discouraged in TAFE Queensland.
Any copied material should be minimal and the bulk of the material needs to be original writing.
If you do copy any text at all it must adhere to the Part VB limits and requirements:
Source attribution
The original source must be attributed.
OPDU will assign the correct attribution, but you as a content writer must provide the original source information as follows:
- Author or copyright owner of the material: this must be the original author, and not someone who has copied the material from someone else. In this case you must locate the original author. If the original author or owner cannot be identified, then the material can’t be used.
- Original source location: this will usually be a web link, but if from a hardcopy resource will be the full reference for that source. This must NOT be a general link to a website, but the actual link to where the material is located.
- Date accessed if a web link.
Limits for use of Part VB:
- An article in an issue of a periodical.
- More than one article in a periodical if the article is on the same subject and different from the general subject as the periodical.
- In the case of a literary, dramatic or musical work in hard copy, 10% of the pages of the work or if the work is divided into chapters, up to one chapter.
- In the case of a published literary or dramatic work in electronic form (e.g. Website page) up to 10 per cent of the words or if the work is divided into chapters, up to one chapter.
This means that if you are copying text from a webpage, and you use more than 10% of it, you are breaking the law.
Electronic journals
If an online newspaper or journal has periodical issues, you may use a whole article from one issue. If however the publication is behind a paywall the specific terms and conditions on that publication will legally override your ability to use Part VB.
Whenever you purchase material, you have legally agreed to the license terms on that material, which then take legal precedence over any other license, such as Part VB. So for any material that has been purchased, the license or terms must state that the material can be communicated to the whole of TAFE Queensland or else can’t be used. For example if a teacher has purchased a copy of an article through their own personal account with a provider, they will not be able to make a copy of this for use in educational delivery.
See the library for access to journal articles as ideally all journal articles should be accessed via their databases.
Linking
Linking is not a copyright activity under the Copyright Act. This is because you are not actually ‘copying’ any material, just providing a path to its location on another website. As a result, providing links to material on external websites is a good way of managing copyright in the delivery of education.
So it is preferable to link out to other people’s material on the internet. If the material is critical to the unit, the preference is that the material should be original written content within the resource.
The most important thing to ensure is that you do not link to content that you suspect may be an unlawful copy (i.e. the content has not been uploaded by the copyright owner.)
Images
We have accounts with the following stock image provider:
You can search theis stock image provider and if you find an image you want to use, right click the thumbnail and click ‘Copy image’, and then paste this image into your content at the place where you wold like it to appear.
If you have an idea for an image you would like, you can ask us to try to source or create the image you are asking for by adding a comment. You can use images from the internet as examples, but they would not be able to be used, and we would need to source or create our own version.
If you need a complicated diagram created, make sure that you provide all the detail necessary to create the image. Again examples from the stock image providers or the internet can be used to demonstrate what is required.
Copying images without permission
Copying images without explicit permission falls under the Part VB license and must be attributed as such.
When copying images in hardcopy format, it is only allowed when it explains or illustrates a section of text that has also been copied under Part VB – UNLESS the image is not separately available in which case you may copy the whole image. In practical terms you can usually copy the whole image.
When copying images in electronic format, there is no limit on what portion can be copied. This means that 100% of an electronic image can be copied under Part VB.
This does not negate any terms or conditions applied by the copyright owner as these may override your ability to copy an electronic image under Part VB, so check the ownership and copyright status of images found online. In particular be wary of images which show a person’s face that may have been communicated over the internet without that person’s permission.
Remember that TAFE Queensland wants to reduce the use of Part VB.