TV and radio broadcasts
Swinburne pays a Part VA licence fee which allows Swinburne staff to copy and communicate television or radio broadcasts (free-to-air or pay tv/subscription) for educational purposes without seeking permission from the copyright owner. Copying limits and requirements are discussed below.
How much can I copy?
You can copy and communicate and entire broadcast and there is no limit to the number of copies you can make. Access to any copies must be limited to staff and students only.
Podcasts
You can copy podcasts of television or radio material from an Australian broadcaster from the internet provided they have already been aired by the network.
Commercial DVDs
You cannot copy or communicate material from commercially available videos or DVDs, even if that material has previously been broadcast. For example you could not copy or communicate an excerpt from the documentary series The Life of Birds from a DVD purchased at the ABC shop. For more information see our audio-visual materials page.
Other material on the internet
You cannot copy audio-visual material on the internet, unless already aired by an Australian network, without permission of the copyright holder. For more information visit the internet page.
How do I copy TV/Radio broadcasts?
Staff can of course copy broadcasts of any network/station at home and then bring a copy to show in class. There are also several external services Swinburne subscribes to detailed below.
External services for TV and radio material
TV News is a database containing digitised content from news, current affairs and documentaries screened on Australian free-to-air networks. All items are available for staff to download.
Staff can also use Request TV where they can order DVD copies of programs which are then added to the library collection. Request TV is a database of programs from all major networks (ABC, ABC2, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten) dating back to October 2007.
Another service is Enhance TV where you can also order copies of programs to be used for teaching purposes.
Notices and labelling requirements
Notices
A copyright notice must appear at the beginning of broadcast reproductions communicated to students electronically, such as via email or online via a secure server.
Labelling copies made on video or DVD
Each copy of a broadcast (the video tape, disc or container) must be labelled with required information including the date of the broadcast and the date the copy was made.
For further information contact the Copyright Office.
Return to Using copyright material for teaching.