Copyright and creative commons
As well as creating lots of their own resources to use with their students, teachers need access to things like published books, music, and media.
For them to access and share these materials, your board needs to manage copyright licensing and have a Creative Commons policy in place.
What is copyright?
Copyright is a set of rights that people who create something (writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, and more) hold over the work they've created.
Copyright owners of printed material, for example, have the exclusive rights to:
- Decide who can copy and publish their work.
- Communicate their work and perform/read it in public.
- Make an adaptation of their work (like a translation or a dramatisation).
Here in New Zealand, copyright applies the minute a writer (or another creative owner) first records their work – whether in writing or another way.
There's no copyright registration process; you don't even have to use the © symbol.
Instead, copyright automatically occurs when the work is created.
How do you manage copyright for resources created by your teachers?
Under the Copyright Act 1994open_in_new, your board (as the employer) holds the copyright to all works created by teachers.
This means that teachers cannot share their resources without your board's express permission.
The easiest way to manage this is by establishing a Creative Commons policy that allows others to copy and share learning resources developed by school employees and owned by your board.
How do you manage copyright for resources created by other people?
Under the Copyright Act 1994open_in_new, teachers can copy a small amount of work to share with students for educational purposes.
However, it's a tiny amount, for example, up to 3% or three pages of a book (whichever is less).
Schools can purchase copyright licenses that allow them to access and share far more content than this.
We run a "one-stop" copyright licensing scheme to help schools do this easily and effectively.
Check out the copyright licensing page in the reference section below.
Questions your board could ask
- Do we have a Creative Commons policy in place to allow staff to share their learning resources?
- Have we purchased the copyright licenses we need to use creative resources like books, music, and media?
Templates, resources, and references
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