Copyright: Using licensed materials from others

Simply having access to a book, article, or online resource does not automatically grant the right to reproduce, distribute, or adapt it.  Some materials have a read-only licence. At the University of Twente, we advocate in all cases: Linking to a work is preferred over making a copy!  

Embedding content is similar to linking in that it directs your audience to the original source without reproducing it. Both linking and embedding content are allowed if the work was placed online with the consent of the right’s holder (i.e. it concerns a reputable trustworthy site) and you are not bypassing any access restrictions such as paywalls or login screens.   

If linking is not possible or appropriate, the options below explain how to use someone else’s work directly. At all times, be sure to cite the work correctly.  See the “How to do Copyright Attribution” below for more information.

Abiding by the author's moral rights means that whenever you use a someone else's (copyrighted) work, you always must give attribution. If you don't, you are plagiarizing.   

When you give attribution, you generally need to include TASL:   

• Title (if available) 
• Authour/creator 
• Source/link 
• Licence 

For examples on how to apply this, see the Creative Commons wiki page on attribution

Note: Attribution is different from permission. Be sure that you have met the conditions to use a work before copying and distributing it. See the section “Using materials without prior permission” for more details.

Academic Citation
In academia a very specific format of attribution is used (e.g. APA style). For guidance on academic citation, see Avoiding & Detecting Plagiarism.

There are some situations where you can use copyrighted works without prior permission. Below is a list of (some of) these. Whichever applies to your situation, proper attribution is essential: the work must always be correctly cited, acknowledging the original creator and source. Permission-free use is not the same as credit-free use. For guidance on how to cite correctly, see the “How to do Copyright Attribution" section on this page.  

1. Own personal use: For your own, personal study and for research, you are allowed to make a (printed or digital) copy of a copyrighted work, as long as you obtained it legally and do not share it with others (not even family members or colleagues).
2. The copyright has expired: When the creator is known and deceased over 70 years ago, calculated from 1 January of the year following their death. You are therefore allowed to reuse the original works of Shakespeare, Beethoven, Rembrandt, and others whose works are in the public domain.
   However, be careful with derivatives of such works such as translations, recordings or other adaptations, as these may still be protected by copyright or neighbouring rights (Artikel 7 Wet op de naburige rechten). For example: Beethoven's 5^th Symphony is in the public domain, but any new (orchestral) recordings of the music is copyrighted to the producers. Likewise - Rembrandt's paintings are also in the public domain, but a photograph of his paintings are copyrighted to the photographer – as long as this photograph involves creative choices.
3. It’s part of the public domain: Laws, regulations and decrees issued by the government, as well as court rulings and administrative decisions, are free of copyright.  Works with expired copyright are also part of the public domain, as are many government publications. 
4. The work has a Creative Commons or open-source licence: With these licenses, the copyright holder has granted permission in advance, subject to the license terms. See: open source licenses for more information. You can find the UT's Research Software Policy here: Research Software Management 
5. An excerpt for educational use for registered UT students only in a closed environment (like canvas): As a University of Twente teacher, you are allowed to use an excerpt of copyrighted materials for educational purposes, under certain conditions. See the Using licensed materials in teaching page. 
6. Citaatrecht: As explained on auteursrechten.nl:
   You can “cite” a copyrighted work as long as it serves a legitimate purpose. As defined by law, this legitimate purpose is either an announcement, a review, a polemic, or scientific/academic discussion.
   It is important that the citation:
   1. a. is proportional, meaning to not use more than is necessary. 
   2. has its source cited.
   3. comes from a work that has been published.
   4. is not just for decoration.
      For example, a graph or a model that you have a academic or scientific discussion about, falls under “citaatrecht”. For images (incl. graphs and models), a good “test” is if you can swop out the image for another image. If this is the case, you cannot use citaatrecht in this instance. For more information about images, see our section on “Images”.
7. Adapting a work for someone with a reading disability: According to Artikel 15j Auteurswet you are allowed to adapt a copyrighted work on behalf of someone with a reading disability into an accessible form for that person. As long as:
   1. The person with the reading disability has lawful access to the work.
   2. The integrity of the published writing is respected as much as possible.

If you do not meet any of these conditions for the piece of work that you wish to use, see the section “Gaining permission from a copyright holder”.

All work is inherently copyrighted, meaning that if it does not fall under any of the categories listed under  “Using materials without prior permission” above , then written permission is needed for its use.

If you have personal contact with the copyright holder, please ask them to put on the document that you wish to use the following statement: “Authorized for educational use by the University of Twente only.”

If you wish to use to use copyrighted materials and you do not know the copyright holder personally, please contact the CIP for a copyright form that the copyright holder can sign and return. We archive all these permissions digitally and can assist in attaching a copyright notice to the document declaring that the University of Twente has direct permission for the copyrighted document. To contact us you can email us at cip@utwente.nl

When using copyrighted images, the same conditions apply as mentioned under “How to do Copyright Attribution” and “Using materials without prior permission”.

For images, be sure to comply with the following requirements:

• Functional use: the image must serve a clear purpose in your work, not merely function as decoration.  It should directly support your argument and form an integral part of your text. 
• Proportionality: the number of images must be proportionate to the support they provide.   
• No harm to exploitation: the use of the image must not prevent the creator from commercially exploiting their work. In other words, the image should not be used in such a way that it is no longer possible for the maker to earn money from the image. 

If you are using images from a book or journal article for educational purposes, see our page on the “Easy Access Agreement” for more information.

The Easy Access Agreement allows for excerpts of copyrighted material for educational use. The copyright holders of these educational materials are publishers represented by UvO. For more information see Easy Access Agreement.