Exercise 3: Copyright
Spend 10 minutes working through this exercise with your group
When you are writing your thesis, you may want to reuse materials found in books, papers etc. In addition to referring correctly to these, you may need to obtain permissions to avoid copyright infringements.
In general, you always need to obtain copyright in order to use materials that other people made. But there are a myriad of exceptions. Perhaps the most important one: There is no copyright on facts. Thus stating a fact that someone else discovered or came up with is fine.
Another exception is that figures only showing data don't need permissions. This for instance applies to most simple plots. But note that as soon as the author has drawn something om top of the plot, it may be subject to copyright.
Additionally, more and more journals are using Creative Commons licences on their articles, which gives you the right to reuse the contents under specific conditions. For the the rest, you need to explicitly get permission for use, but this is usually quite simple (and automated). See for instance the example below from Physical Review Letters.
Figure 3: Example of button to press in order to obtain permissions for reuse of matetrials from Physical Review Letters.
a) Find out how to reuse materials from a paper on influenza and humidity.
b) Had this paper been publised in 2015, what steps would you need to take to reuse materials?
Overview of breaking the rules
The difference between plagiarism and copyright infringements. Note that some actions may fall into both categories simultaneously.| Plagiarism | Copyright infringement |
| Giving the impression that someone else’s work is your own. | Using someone else’s work without their permission. |
| Reasonably easy to avoid by being honest. | Difficult/vague rules. Fair use etc. |
| An ethical construct | A legal construct |
| May get you expelled | May lead to claims for damages |
c) Which one is easiest to avoid, plagiarism or copyright infringement? Discuss with your group.