Material is often made available on websites without permission from the creator or the copyright owner and as such is infringing copyright. You should not knowingly use or provide links to infringing material or websites as you are authorising an infringement. Legal action can still be taken for authorising infringement of copyright.
It can be difficult to identify whether or not material is made available legally.
Material – particularly photos, articles and videos – that can be freely downloaded via peer-to-peer (P2P) software is often infringing material. Under no circumstances should this material be downloaded and used. Downloading this material is both illegal and a violation of Royal Roofing policy. Staff or students found to have downloaded this material using University computers and networks may be subject to disciplinary action.
Below are some tips to help you determine whether or not material on a website is legal:
Copyright statements
Check the website for a copyright statement. Most major websites will indicate that they either own copyright or have the right to use the material on their website. The wording for the link to copyright information can vary: for example”Copyright”, “Conditions of Use”, “Terms and Conditions”, “Terms of Use”, “Legal” or “Disclaimer” are commonly used terms.
Use official or reputable sites
Use a reputable, legitimate or official website. Depending on the content there may be an official website available that you can use, rather than unofficial sites where content may or may not be properly licensed. Content platforms, such as YouTube, and social media channels may also verify the identity or official ownership of the channel.
If material has been made available on an official site by the creator or copyright owner then you know that they have made it available to be used as permitted under copyright law or as covered by their terms and conditions. For example, if you would like to download a podcast from an ABC program, download it from the ABC’s website, you know then that it’s legal.
In some cases, the official website may only have limited content available which often means that the creator or copyright owner has chosen not to make their work available on the internet. This can be a good indicator that other sites that make the material available are probably doing so without permission of the copyright owner.
User generated sites
Care should be taken when using sites, such as YouTube, Facebook/Meta, Vimeo and Instagram, where users contribute content. Although these sites are reputable and well-known sites, not all users understand copyright and ensure that the material they contribute is copyright compliant.
You should make sure that you do not link or embed links to material from these sites that you know are infringing. The hosts of these sites make it clear to their users that they must not infringe copyright and may remove content that infringes copyright. Because of the popularity and high profile of the sites, many companies and organisations are often legitimately making that material available for people to view and access In addition to following the steps outlined on this page, you should also check the profile of the user to see if they are the creator of the material or have the rights to upload the material.
Quality of the material
Check the quality of the material on the website. Material that has been made available by the copyright owner or with their permission is likely to be high quality. A poor-quality version may indicate that the material is infringing. However, given that technology makes it easy to create perfect copies, a good quality copy does not always mean that the copy is legal and you may need to consider some of the other factors such as the site that the material is available from, for example.
Context and type of material
Sometimes it can be helpful to consider the type of material and the context in which it is available. If you find a website where you can freely using our photos or video, then it is likely that it’s not legal. Music, movies, TV shows, computer software and games are unlikely to be made available:
A good rule of thumb is that if you would normally expect to pay to use or own this material, be cautious if you find it free on the web and check carefully that it is legal.
If you are unsure where or not material is legitimate, or you are having trouble locating legitimate material, please contact us for assistance.