Mount Sion iCentre: Digital Citizenship

This guide provides general information about copyright to assist you as a student and/or staff member at Ambrose Treacy College. It is not intended as legal advice. 

What is Copyright?

Copyright deals with rights assigned to creators/copyright owners of original works (literary, artistic, creative or musical, computer software/programs, etc). It  is part of Intellectual Property.

According to IP Australia:
“Copyright protects the original expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. It is free and automatically safeguards your original works of art and literature, music, films, sound recording, broadcasts and computer programs from copying and certain other uses”.  

Even if you do not see the copyright symbol, it does not mean that a resource is copyright free.  Copyright covers what is copied, communicated, reproduced, adapted and performed. The duration of copyright varies, check the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) site for more details.

Creators of original works have moral rights, which are the right of attribution and the right to have the integrity of their work retained. 

References:

Australian Copyright Council http://www.copyright.org.au.

Copyright Agency Limited http://www.copyright.com.au.

IP Australia. Copyright. Retrieved from https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/.

Information source : Australian Catholic University

 BING - Bing carries that same clean user experience to video, making it the go-to source for video search without a YouTube bias.

YANDEX – Russian, turkey, Ukraine

CC Search - CC Search should be your first stop on the hunt for nearly any type of copyright-free content.

Swisscows – Family friendly, privacy first

DuckDuckGo- Doesn’t collect of store any of your personal information

OneSearch - Verizon Media launched its privacy-focused search engine, OneSearch, in January 2020

Wiki.com – perfect for those who appreciate community-led information as found on sites like Wikipedia

PLAGIARISM DEFINITION:

"Take (the work or an idea of someone else) and pass it off as one's own."

(From The Concise Oxford English Dictionary in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses)

 

TYPES OF PLAGIARISM: 

• Directly quoting other people's words from online or printed sources without acknowledgement (you also need to acknowledge using images, tables, graphs, statistics, videos, music, formulae, laboratory data)
• Paraphrasing or summarising someone else’s thoughts or ideas without crediting and citing your source (even using someone else’s ideas and rewriting it in your own words needs to be referenced)
• Careless or incomplete referencing of your source
• Copying or buying an essay and handing it in as your own work
• Falsely creating a reference that doesn't exist
• Presenting another students’ research data as your own
• Collusion - presenting an assignment as your own independent work when it has been produced in whole or part with other people (for example another student or tutor).

 

PLAGIARISM MAY BE:

• Deliberate (eg. buying an essay and submitting it as your own work)
• Accidental (eg. incorrectly referencing the work of others because of carelessness or lack of academic skills)

 The consequences for plagiarism apply even for unintentional plagiarism

 

HOW DO STUDENTS AVOID PLAGIARISM?

• Give credit to the source, even when paraphrasing.
• Use quotation marks when using another’s words and give credit to  that source. use their own words as much as possible when writing. The easiest way to not be tempted to plagiarize words is to take notes in phrases—no matter how eloquent the writer is. 
• Learn the correct way to cite an electronic source which includes listing the web address in the sources.
• Learn the correct way to document sources. Teachers will help with his process. As well, many handbooks available in school, the library, and in bookstores give directions for citing sources correctly.

How cyber smart are you?  Try this quiz to see if you know how to stay safe online.

Print Book

• The copyright information of a publication is usually listed on theverso (back page) of the title page.

Print journal

• Check the information on the publisher's page (or website).

Website/Online Content -  eg websites and YouTube

• Check if the content is from an authorised or credible source.
• Check copyright information page on the website for example look for © at the bottom of a web page or in the FAQs.

Office of the eSafety Commissioner

Social Media Sites & Apps