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This guide is intended to provide a brief introduction and answer frequently asked questions. It does not seek to be exhaustive and definitely cannot be taken as legal advice.
If you need legal support, we recommend that you contact colleagues at the HKBU Knowledge Transfer Office as they work with solicitors and legal advisers on a daily basis and can offer in-depth consultations and professional advice.
Q1 | What is fair dealing? Is there a prescribed amount I can copy according to those criteria?
Q1 | What is fair dealing? Is there a prescribed amount I can copy according to those criteria?
Fair dealing refers to exemptions aimed at facilitating modern teaching and applies to both printed works and online materials. The exemption allows teachers and students to use reasonable portions of copyright work in a fair manner for teaching and learning:
To decide whether your dealing with a copyright work is “fair”, you need to consider all circumstances of the use, in particular:
The purpose and nature of the dealing, whether it is for non profit-making or commercial
The nature of the work
The amount and substantiality of the portion dealt with in relation to the work as a whole
Effect of the dealing on the potential market for or value of the work
Note however, that there is no prescribed amount on what can be copied. It is not always quantity, but also quality when observing fair dealing. For example, a work will only be infringed if a substantial or important part is taken, such as copying a catchy musical phrase from a song.
To enjoy fair dealing, you need to ensure proper attribution - acknowledge with title and authorship of the work
Source | elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap528?xpid=ID_1438403328788_001
Watch this video created by YouTube Creators on Fair Use.
Q2 | I’ve heard of the term fair use, is it the same as fair dealing? Any court case examples that can illustrate the fair concept?
Defined by various international legal systems, fair use is a concept related to fair dealing but the difference is not clear-cut. The U.S. legal tradition in copyright and intellectual property has long relied on fair use while the Commonwealth countries have all used fair dealing instead.
To understand what constitutes as fair, check out the U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index which documents U.S. judicial decisions and courts of appeal’s fair cases. Select the Education/Scholarship/Research category to focus on examples from academia.
Source | copyright.gov/fair-use
Q3 | What is Creative Commons and what are the 6 CC licenses?
Q3 | What is Creative Commons and what are the 6 CC licenses?
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization set up in 2001 with the aim to facilitate sharing and reuse of creative works through the use of various legal tools. It allows users to easily create their own license from 6 categories:
CC BY | Attribution
Most accommodating of all licenses offered, it allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon our work, even commercially, as long as they credit you.
CC BY-SA | Attribution-ShareAlike
Used by Wikipedia, this license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under identical terms. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.
CC BY-ND | Attribution-NoDerivs
This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.
CC BY-NC | Attribution-NonCommercial
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
CC BY-NC-SA | Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
CC BY-NC-ND | Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Most restrictive of the six licenses, this lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under identical terms. It allows downloading and sharing only if they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
Visit Which Creative Commons license is right for me? to find out which license suits your needs. You may also find this Creative Commons Licenses, Explained video helpful.
Source | creativecommons.org/licenses | hk.creativecommons.org/licenses
You may learn more about CC license through these two videos created by HKU.
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