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Find out what copyright laws protect, what to do about copyright notices and where to get more information.
Copyright laws protect authors of original works and give the owner of copyright certain exclusive rights.
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of Australia and other countries to the authors of original works including:
- literary
- dramatic
- musical
- artistic
- certain other intellectual works
- computer software.
Copyright protection is available to both published and unpublished works.
The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to conduct and authorise various acts, including:
- reproduction
- publication
- communication to the public
- artistic
- public performance
- adaptation.
Copyright protection is automatically secured when a work is fixed in a tangible form. This includes when you produce a book, software code or video. Unlike the process for getting a patent, there is no need to formally apply for copyright protection.
Copyright notices
Copyright notices
Although you don’t need to use a copyright notice for copyright works, we recommend that you use one as it notifies others of your ownership.
For works owned by the University, use the following notice:
© 20XX [year of first publication] The University of Melbourne. All rights reserved.
What is an adaptation?
What is an adaptation?
An adaptation is a work based on one or more existing copyrighted works. In the USA, this is called a ‘derivative work’.
Adaptations include:
- translations into other languages
- derivations of object code from the source code of a computer program
- films or plays created from a novel
- musical remixes
- memes
- mash-ups.
In each of these cases, the copyright owner of the original work has the exclusive right to make adaptations that include recognisable or substantial portions of the work.
Read more about copyright
Read more about copyright
The University Copyright Office has online information and resources and can answer your questions or organise training and awareness sessions.
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Talk to us
General questions
If you have a general question or don’t know who to talk to, get in touch with us and we’ll point you in the right direction.
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Our local Business Development team members and central IP and Tech Transfer services team are here to help.
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