Copyright for lecturers

As a lecturer, you make use of material from others during the teaching you provide; you prescribe mandatory or optional literature and use journal articles, videos, photos, datasets, and other materials. All of this is done to equip students with the skills they will need as employees or employers.

At the same time, as a lecturer, you create works that may be subject to copyright. Copyright then determines which rights you have as the creator and how others may use your work.

Copyright on your work

As a lecturer, you create various works for students, such as texts, presentations, videos, and images. The copyright on this work lies primarily with the employer; in principle, all education-related work created during the employment contract falls under employer copyright.

Exceptions to this are possible. For example, if the work is intended for the teaching of a wider audience, i.e., outside your own university. Another exception is contractual; the employer may decide to waive employee copyright. 

Using the work of others

In principle, you need permission from the copyright holder to use copyrighted work by others, unless use is permitted by law or a license. An important legal exception is, for example, the right to quote.

As a lecturer, you may make short and medium-length excerpts available to your students, based on the Easy Access agreement. You must make these excerpts available via the Educational Resource Repository.

Additionally, as a lecturer, you may also use videos or audio clips during both in-person and digital lectures. However, you may not simply save these in Canvas or make them available elsewhere.

Want to know more about the use of videos and images, or other forms of use? View the frequently asked questions about the use of copyrighted material.