Rights of copyright owners
Copyright owners have exclusive rights over material in which they own copyright.
Copyright owners' rights include:
- Rights over the reproduction of works, such as the photocopying, hand copying, filming, recording and scanning of works.
- Rights over how their work is made public, such as how their work is published, uploaded onto sites on the internet, etc.
- Rights on how their work is communicated, such as reloaded onto sites on the internet or emailed, etc.
- Rights on how their work is performed in public.
- Rights on how their work is adapted, such as the translating or arrangement of a work.
- Rights on how their work is Broadcast or transmitted to subscribers.
- The exclusive right to transfer, assign or licence their works to another person or entity.
Unless there is an exception in the Copyright Act that applies to a specific use then individuals must obtain permission or licence material that they wish to utilise.
The Copyright Act also grants author and creators, moral rights to their work. Moral rights unlike the set of rights assigned to copyright are personal rights and cannot be transferred.
Copyright does not include:
- Linking to another section of the internet. However, if a site is not authorised /is infringing then linking could be seen as infringing copyright.
- Lending copyright material to a friend.
- Borrowing copyright material from a library.
Rights of copyright owners vary between different types of works protected under copyright. For more information see:
- Literary works
- Dramatic works
- Musical works
- Artistic works
- Films and television broadcasts
- Sound recordings and radio broadcasts.
Communicating material
Communication is defined as 'making available online' or 'electronically transmitting'. Communication means making copyright material available online, to view or download, such as via the intranet, via an email or by uploading material to an accessible server. Work uploaded to an inaccessible server is not considered to have been 'made available' as defined in the Copyright Act.