As a general rule, resources found on the web are protected by copyright. Copyright applies to text, photographs, videos, and any kind of other resources. Copyright means that the author alone has the right to decide how and where their work is used. Resources under copyright cannot be distributed, copied, or altered without the author's permission. Even when you have permission from the author to use the work, you must give credit by citing the original author. If you do not have permission to use the resource, crediting the author is not a way to bend the copyright law. Quoting a work is allowed without permission.
Copyright protects automatically all created works. Authors can attach a copyright symbol © to their work, although copyright applies even if the symbol is not used. Copyright applies even when the author shares the work to everyone, for example on social media. For instance you cannot use photos found on Facebook or on blogs without permission.
In some cases copyright does not apply and these resources are free to use. These include:
NOTE: Online you may wander into different pirate sites that have obtained the articles entirely without permission and against copyright law. The library does not recommend using these types of materials, more information in the Guide to Open Access: How to publish open access? - The illegal open access of pirate sites.
Linking to websites in your work, like study materials, is allowed without an explicit permission. When adding links to your work use regular hyperlinks that direct straight to the original website. Remember to confirm that the content is accessible to everyone online. Remember to also confirm the legality of the linked content.
Quoting a published work is allowed without an explicit permission. Quotations should be relevant to the topic of the work. Quotation length is not specified: quoting is allowed in the extent needed. The creator and source must be mentioned with the quotation.
The right to quote others basically applies to all types of works. However, quoting photographs and other images may be difficult, as quotations are generally small parts of a larger work, for example, a book, photo, or a video. The right to quote allows attaching images to scholarly content (e.g. to an article or study material), if the subject of the image is relevant to the text. However, according to the right to quote other's work, attaching images to a work is not allowed for the sole purpose of having illustrations.
You can use content made by others as part of your work when you add the appropriate reference information in it.
This guide helps you use digital resources provided by Turku UAS. Here you can find answers to e.g. the following questions: How can publicly available online resources be used? How should licensed articles and other e-resources be linked to e.g. Itslearning? What kind of terms and conditions do e-resources have?
Contact the Turku UAS Library with an online form or by email library@turkuamk.fi.
We are happy to help you!
This resource has been licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Doesn't apply to photos or videos unless otherwise stated.