Expression of thought
Copyright protects the expression of the thought, not the originality of the thought or idea. The originality requirement for protection is that the author of the work has used some skill and labour in creating the work, not simply copied it. An idea is not protected until it is reduced to material form.
There are two statutory licences which are available to Australian Universities to enable copying and communication for educational purposes (in both analogue and digital formats) of:
- print and graphic material (books, journal articles, pictures, graphs etc) and
- audio-visual material (TV & radio off-air broadcasts)
The University also has a music licence which enables some copying and/or communication of commercially available music for educational purposes. This licence has been negotiated between Universites Australia and the Music Societies (APRA, AMCOS, PPCA & ARIA).