Conferences and public lectures

Presenting at a conference

If including third-party copyright, within a conference presentation make sure that rights to use the material are secured prior to the conference. There are limited provisions in the Copyright Act that allows the reuse of copyright material at conferences. A brief quote or short extract of text can be included without have to secure rights; see insubstantial portions. Also, rights do not have to be secured for material that is being critiqued or reviewed; see fair dealing for criticism or review.

Try and source material that is "copyright friendly". For example, Flickr has a wide range of photos licensed under Creative Commons, as does Google Images. See the following guides:

• Flickr and Creative Commons images
• Google images and Creative Commons images

In most other situations permission from the copyright owner will have to be sought. When seeking permission clarify any potential uses, such as the intention to publish the conference paper or to upload the conference paper into an online environment.  Check with conference organisers if they plan to do any of the above or if they plan to record or stream the presentation. If presenters plan to do any of the above and third-party material is included in these presentation methods, permission will have to be sought from the third-party copyright holder explicitly stating how the material is going to be used, prior to the conference.

Additionally, presenters at conference have performers' rights if they are asked to record, stream or upload their presentations onto platforms.  Request a written explanation of how a recording will be used at a conference, before agreeing to be involved. Ideally there will be a formal agreement that presenters are asked to sign.

Organising a conference

If the University is hosting a conference, it is important that steps are taken to make sure that the conference is copyright compliant.

Obtain permission from presenters if there are requirements to record, upload or stream performances or if there is a requirement to upload their papers. The University's audio/video/photograph release and IP licence form can be used. The consent deed also allows the recording to be made available online.

Consent will need to be obtained If intending to film or photograph participants or presenters. The audio/video/photograph release and IP licence form covers both filming and photographing. The photo release consent deed is sufficient if only photographing the presenters. See the Copyright site's photographing or filming people page for more information.

If conference presenters have included copyright material created by other people in their presentation, they will need to make sure that they have the necessary rights to use that material. There are limited provisions in the Copyright Act that covers the reusing of third-party copyright material at conferences however, permission is generally required from the copyright owner. See insubstantial portions and fair dealing for criticism and review.

Permission will need to be obtained from the presenters prior to the uploading or publishing of conference presentation papers, videos, etc.  Please contact the Copyright Office for more information.

The University has a music licence that allows music to be performed at conferences and other events hosted by the University. For more information see the music licence.

If an external conference has hired a University venue for their conference and the University is not actually hosting the conference but is simply providing the venue, it is the responsibility of the conference organisers to ensure that they comply with copyright. Contact the Copyright Office for assistance with this.