Copyright

You are the author of the didactic work/other copyrighted material

As the original author of a work, you automatically acquire full copyright on it. Therefore, you do not have to complete any additional formalities nor do you have to publish the author's work. Consequently, you can do what you want with your work, provided that you have not yet transferred your copyright (to a publisher, for example). There are several copyright options for publication.

Please note: If you want to publish your work and you are not the only author, you have to comply with the rules of co-authorship.

You use the copyrighted material of others

When using source material, you must take the following into account:

• Please observe all copyright restrictions. There is a significant probability that the sources you are using are protected by copyright.
• Beware of plagiarism. Plagiarism is copying or translating someone else’s work in an identical manner or in a slightly altered form, without citing the source. This also extends to engaging someone else to compile texts for you.
• Source citation is mandatory at all times. Always mention the name of the author whose works you are citing and the source (book, journal, etc.) from which you obtained the material. The year of publication and other practical details are also useful. Consult guidelines for citation for more information about how to correctly cite your information sources.
• Only use short quotes. Otherwise, you are violating the right to quote.
• Please comply with image rights. Every person holds image rights. This means that the creation and distribution of visual images of every individualized and recognizable person is subject to the consent of the person involved! This is regardless of the medium involved: a photograph, drawing, painting, video images, etc. Additionally, granting permission to create an image does not automatically mean permission to distribute this image. Please keep this in mind if you are required to or intend to publish your research. To avoid future problems, use this template (*.docx)(in Dutch) that will serve to establish a written record of consent.

If you want to publish your research as a book or article, there are several options regarding your copyright:

1. You retain your copyright in full

You have the following two options:

• You publish your research on your own account
• You publish your work in an open access journal (golden route). Instead of transferring your copyright to the publisher, as is the case with a traditional journal, a free licence - usually a Creative Commons licence - is linked to your article. Such a licence gives a lot of freedom to the user, but it does impose certain conditions on what others can do with your publication.

Because you retain full copyright, you can do what you want with your work.

2. You retain part of your copyright

If you have your research published by a traditional publisher, you will usually have to transfer your copyright (in full) via the publisher's publishing or copyright transfer agreement, as a result of which you will lose (part of) your rights to your work.

Many publishers will, however, permit you to make a postprint of your work accessible to the general public via the digital archives (repository) of the institution where you work, e.g. via the Document Server from Hasselt University– whether or not after an embargo period. Check the contract with your publisher, or Sherpa Romeo if it is a standard contract.

Some publishers, however, will not permit you to do this. We, therefore, recommend you to transfer your copyright under certain conditions. There are two ways to do this: you can attach an addendum to your publisher’s publishing or copyright transfer agreement or opt for a modified license.

Option 1: attach an addendum to the publisher’s publishing or copyright transfer agreement

Send an addendum to your publisher, together with the publishing or copyright transfer agreement and an accompanying letter. An addendum is a legal document that permits you to retain specific rights to your articles, such as the right to upload the published version and/or postprint of your article to the digital archives (repository) of the institution where you work, e.g. via the Document Server from Hasselt University.

Examples:

• The Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine will enable you to generate an addendum via an online form.
• You can also use the SPARC Author Addendum.

Option 2: opt for a modified license

If you opt for a modified license, you will not transfer your copyright, but you will give another permission to exploit your work under certain conditions. With a license, you can also ensure that you retain the right, for example, to place the published version and/or postprint of your article in the digital repository of the institution where you work, for example, in the Document Server from Hasselt University. You can choose between an exclusive licence, i.e. a licence that you grant exclusively to one publisher, or a non-exclusive licence, in which case you can also grant the usage rights laid down in it to others.

Example:

Creative Commons (CC) license: This license enables you to retain full copyright and permits others to reproduce, distribute and communicate your publication, subject to the condition that your name is mentioned along with any other conditions which you impose. You can determine the scope of the license (e.g. not permitting commercial use, not permitting derivative works to be made of your publication, etc.). The Creative Commons website contains several licenses to choose from.

Tip: To ensure that you can make the author's version of your article immediately available in open access (i.e. without any embargo), follow the following steps:

1. Add the following text to the cover page or in the acknowledgements of your author's version before submitting it to the journal of your choice: 'A CC BY or equivalent licence is applied to the Author Accepted Manuscript arising from this submission'.
2. As soon as your article is accepted for publication, you deposit your author's version in a public repository such as the UHasselt Document Server.

3. You fully transfer your copyright

Sometimes you really have no choice but to transfer your copyright - in part or not - to a publisher. In the case of full transfer, you lose the rights to your work and can, in principle, only use it in accordance with the general rules (as they apply to every user of a copyrighted work). In most cases, however, the contract with your publisher still grants you certain rights. For example, many publishers allow you to make the author's version of your work publicly available via the digital archive (repository) of the institution where you work, for example, via UHasselt's Document Server - whether or not after an embargo. In the case of a standard contract, you can easily see whether this is the case for your publication via Sherpa Romeo.

For educational or academic research purposes, a lecturer/researcher may place his/her work and that of others (either in full or in part, and either on paper or digital) as well as links to websites on Blackboard, or make it available via another secure environment whose access is controlled by an officially recognized educational institution, both for students and for participants of a training course at UHasselt. However, this is subject to a number of cumulative conditions:

• no profit is pursued;
• the normal exploitation of the protected works is not affected. The communication must, therefore, not have a negative effect on the sale of the works;
• it takes place in the context of the normal activities of the institution;
• the source and the author's name must be mentioned unless this proves impossible.

Please note: Do not use the open internet to distribute copyright-protected material unless it is a quotation. Otherwise, you are committing copyright infringement. However, links, including embedded and framed links, are permitted.

For educational or academic research purposes, a teacher/researcher may reproduce (wholly or in part) his/her work and that of others (including training courses) or for the purpose of scientific research. This means, for example, copying, scanning, downloading, printing, putting on a USB stick, etc. You may also physically hand out copies, as long as this is done in the context of education or for scientific research. However, this is subject to a number of cumulative conditions:

• no profit is pursued;
• the normal exploitation of the protected works is not affected. The reproduction must, therefore, not have a negative effect on the sale of the works;
• it takes place in the context of the normal activities of the institution;
• the source and the author's name must be mentioned unless this proves impossible.

Reproduction may take place in any way, i.e. from paper to paper, from digital to paper, and from digital to digital. For the reproduction of sheet music, you do need to ask permission.

Examples:

• A student photocopies the press articles relating to his thesis research from the library.
• A doctoral student scans an illustration that she finds in an academic book.

For your information: In order to compensate the authors of protected works, the university pays a remuneration via so-called copyright management companies.

In this context, we define a reader as a collection of (excerpts from) integral works by one or more authors as a supplement to your course.

If you, as a lecturer, want to put together a reader and make it available to your students, you do not need permission from the authors in question if you respect the rules regarding the reproduction of didactic work / other copyrighted material. In concrete terms, this means that you observe the following conditions cumulatively:

• no profit is pursued (you may charge a fee for the costs you incur in printing the reader);
• the normal exploitation of the protected works is not affected, so distributing the reader may not have a negative impact on the sale of the publications it contains;
• you may only use works (or excerpts from works) that you include in your reader to illustrate education, i.e. as part of or an explanation for your course. This also means that the reader may only be made available to students who are registered for the course for which the reader is intended;
• the source and the name of the author must be mentioned unless this proves impossible.

If you can tick all the above boxes, the size of your reader is basically not important. If this is not the case, you should still ask the authors for their permission.

Tips for distributing your reader:

• If you distribute your reader on paper to your students, it is best to do this in the classroom or via the course service of your institution, not via a bookstore, because then the cost of printing may exceed the mere cost price, and the reader can also be purchased by a wider audience. This violates the above-mentioned conditions, and permission must therefore be requested from all authors.
• If you make your reader available digitally, do so via Blackboard - or via another secure environment whose access is controlled by an officially recognized educational institution - and only for the registered students, so not via the open internet unless you request permission from all authors.

Bachelor and master students

Since the academic year 2018-2019, the 'Regulations concerning the rights to research results and rights to copyright works of bachelor's and master's students at Hasselt University, tUL and the partner institutions in a joint study programme' are in force. These regulations apply only to creative work that the student realizes in the context of a study programme at Hasselt University or the tUL or in the context of a joint study program of Hasselt University and a partner institution. It regulates both the rights to author works and the rights to research results. Only the first aspect (author works) is explained below since the second aspect does not fall under copyright.

What do these regulations specifically mean in terms of rights in copyright works?

The most important principles regarding author works of the regulations (chapter 2) are explained below. You can also consult the full text of these regulations.

Article 4 - Property rights

As a bachelor or master student you automatically acquire the copyright on the works that you have realized at Hasselt University/tUL. You, therefore, do not have to fulfil additional formalities, and the author’s work does not have to be published either.

If, however, an external organization or employee of Hasselt University/tUL is involved in financing or realizing your author(‘s) work(s), a deviating allocation of the rights must be recorded in writing between yourself, Hasselt University/tUL and the external organization or employee, and details of this allocation must be provided to the Education Office. In the event that your author's work has come about in the context of an internship, you must use the specific templates (available via the intranet, only accessible to staff, in Dutch).

Article 5 – Rights of use

Hasselt University receives for the entire duration of the rights a free, inalienable, non-exclusive right to use your author works or research results for teaching and research. This right is always guaranteed, even if you are going to exploit your author('s) work(s), and starts as soon as you submit your author('s) work(s) to the university.

Article 6 - Publication conditions

You may publish your author(‘s) work(s) in whole or in part or submit it for competitions, provided that you make a prior agreement with the study programme’s coordinating lecturer on whether or not to mention the affiliation with Hasselt University and on the statement that the author(‘s) work(s) originated under the supervision of the coordinating lecturer/supervisor. When publishing, you must also comply with the regulations that are applied within the relevant discipline.

Hasselt University has the right to oppose the publication or other further use of your author(‘s) work(s) if your author(‘s) work(s) contain confidential information or if the rights of the university (for example, in the context of a patent application or ongoing doctoral research) or of external organizations or employees involved (see Article 4) must be protected. You may, however, always publish a summary of your author('s) work(s) without mentioning confidential information.

If an external organization or employee of Hasselt University/tUL is involved in financing or realizing your author(‘s) work(s), the publication conditions must be recorded in writing between yourself, Hasselt University/tUL and the external organization or employee. In the event that your author's work has come about in the context of an internship, you must use the specific templates (available via the intranet, only accessible to staff, in Dutch) for the purpose of recording the publication conditions.

Please note:

• When you start publishing your author(‘s) work(s), check whether the publishing or copyright transfer agreement of the publisher is in accordance with the above regulations. If the publisher, for example, does not allow Hasselt University to acquire the right to use your author's work for teaching and research, add an addendum or opt for a modified license that does allow this right of use.
• The same principle applies to competitions. If you submit your author('s) work(s) for a competition, check the contest rules for provisions that are in conflict with the above regulations. If the latter is the case, provide a different regulation between you and the organization of the competition.

Doctoral students

There is a regulation in the making. We can already mention that in order to protect the electronic version of each PhD from further publication purposes, it will be placed under a standard embargo of 5 years when included in the Document Server, after which it will automatically become available as open access. Doctoral students and promoters can, however, decide together whether or not to change the term.

When using source material, you must take the following into account:

• Please observe all copyright restrictions. There is a significant probability that the sources you are using are protected by copyright.
• Beware of plagiarism. Plagiarism is copying or translating someone else’s work in an identical manner or in a slightly altered form, without citing the source. This also extends to engaging someone else to compile texts for you.
• Source citation is mandatory at all times. Always mention the name of the author whose works you are citing and the source (book, journal, etc.) from which you obtained the material. The year of publication and other practical details are also useful. Consult guidelines for citation for more information about how to correctly cite your information sources.
• Only use short quotes. Otherwise, you are violating the right to quote.
• Please comply with image rights. Every person holds image rights. This means that the creation and distribution of visual images of every individualized and recognizable person is subject to the consent of the person involved! This is regardless of the medium involved: a photograph, drawing, painting, video images, etc. Additionally, granting permission to create an image does not automatically mean permission to distribute this image. Please keep this in mind if you are required to or intend to publish your research. To avoid future problems, use this template (*.docx)(in Dutch) that will serve to establish a written record of consent.

Belgian copyright law applies a very loose definition to the term copyrighted material: ‘a work of literature or a work of art’. This could, for example, refer to any item in the following non-exhaustive list of materials, regardless of their medium:

• Educational and academic texts: handbooks, syllabi, encyclopaedias, articles in scientific journals, etc.
• Journalistic texts: reports, interviews, articles, etc.
• Visual works: photographs, paintings, maps, plans, etc.
• Works of visual art: sculptures, architecture, etc.
• Audio-visual works: films, television series, documentaries, etc.
• Literary texts: novels, poems, plays, translations, adaptations, etc.
• Software
• Databases
• Other examples: emails, websites, agendas, art books, catalogues, musical works and scores, instruction manuals, etc.

The above works are protected by copyright if they are original creations that reflect the personality of their authors. Such original creations, however, do not necessarily need to be ‘new’. Two painters could, for instance, have painted the same landscape or townscape perfectly independently of one another and at entirely different points in time. Both will enjoy copyright protection.

It is imperative to point out that copyright protection will only be granted to the specific form of the work, and not to the underlying ideas, concepts, styles, methods and so on. Taking a literary work as an example, copyright is granted to the text (this being a form of creation), but not to the underlying plot (this being the abstract ideas or material facts on which the creation is based).

Staff members will find an overview of other forms of intellectual rights (in addition to copyright) on the UHasselt Tech Transfer Office website (in Dutch). Should you have any queries or require more explanation on this subject, don’t hesitate to send an email to techtransfer@uhasselt.be.

Copyright is an intellectual right (or intellectual property right). Intellectual rights are exclusive rights granted by operation of law for certain creations that will entitle solely the holder of that right – to the exclusion of all other parties – to free use of the creation. The rationale behind this exclusive right: without remuneration for creative labour and the investments associated with this, authors and publishers might be reluctant to embark on the creative process, which could result in a dearth of cultural works for society.

Copyright distinguishes between two components: property rights and moral rights.

Property rights

Definition

Property rights enable the author to derive income from his or her work. In fact, it is solely the author who holds the exclusive right to forbid or permit others to use the work, whether or not subject to payment.

Types

The most important types of property right are the right of reproduction, the right of distribution and the right of communication to the public.

• The right of reproduction: the right to reproduce, edit and translate the work.
  Examples: all forms of copying, adaptation, translation, etc.
• The right of distribution: the right to market the work, to distribute it and to grant permission for its hire or lending.
  Examples: bringing material or other copies of the work to the market in the form of books, CDs, DVDs, etc.
  Please note: An author cannot prohibit that his/her work is being lent for educational or cultural purposes by institutions that are acknowledged or established by the government for this purpose (e.g. university libraries).
• The right of communication to the public: the right to communicate the work to the public, in whatever form.
  Examples: providing online access to an article, the live performance of a musical work by an ensemble of musicians, the reading aloud of a book, etc.
  Please note the following: An author has the right to prohibit communication to the public of his/her work, but s/he cannot do so if the communication concerns a private performance at no charge within a family setting or a performance at no charge within the framework of school activities that take place either within or outside of the premises of the educational institute (e.g. a PowerPoint presentation). ‘At no charge’ means that no admission fee is requested.

Moral rights:

Besides property rights, an author is also in possession of moral rights, which are tightly bound to the person of the author. These moral rights entitle the author to always be recognised as the author of the work (paternity rights), to decide in which manner and at which point in time the work can be made public (the right to publish the work) and, in conclusion, to demand that his/her work is not changed or otherwise affected (the right to respect for the work).

Please note the following: In principle, the author will retain the moral rights to his/her work. Even if others are permitted to use the work, they are obliged to observe the moral rights of the author. The author can, in specific cases, waive his/her contractual obligations with regard to exercising his/her moral rights.

Staff members will find an overview of other forms of intellectual rights (in addition to copyright) on the UHasselt Tech Transfer Office website (in Dutch). Should you have any queries or require more explanation on this subject, do not hesitate to send an email to techtransfer@uhasselt.be.

The individual who designs the creation and thus also imprints his personal stamp on the work is considered the author. This general definition also applies to materials that are created by a person in the capacity of an employee or civil servant and to people that create works at the order of a customer. Someone who has only contributed materials, technical or financial aid to the creation of a work can, therefore, never be considered its author or co-author. The copyright will remain with the physical person who has effectively created the work. Should an employer or customer wish to acquire copyright, an explicit transfer of rights will be required (i.e. by means of an agreement, employment contract, etc.).

In concrete terms, this means that UHasselt is not the author of any materials created by its employees or students. As a general rule, copyrights will always remain with the employees or students. In cases like this, an explicit transfer of rights would be required if UHasselt wished to acquire the copyright to the creations of its employees or students.

If there is any doubt relating to the authorship of a work, the author is the person whose name (or pseudonym) appears on the work unless there is proof to the contrary. Should the author wish to remain anonymous, then in relation to third parties, the publisher will exercise copyright until the moment that the author’s identity becomes known.

Please note: a disparate regulation applies to software and databases, in which case the rights revert automatically to the employer.

A work that has an original form is automatically protected by copyright. The ‘originality’ requirement refers to the author’s intellectual activity and that the author’s creation bears their personal stamp. No additional procedures are required, nor must the copyrighted material be published. In other words: the copyright arises from the original creation.

The reference ‘©’ indicates that a specific work is protected by copyright, but this is purely for informative purposes. It is not a condition to which the exercising of copyright is subject. Conversely, the ‘©’ notification does not automatically imply that a work is protected by copyright. This depends on whether the work is original and whether the protection period has not yet expired.

Copyright is allocated for a rather long period of time: up to seventy years after the death of the author. This is calculated from the 1st of January of the year pursuant to the author’s death. Should the work consist of various volumes, parts, numbers or issues, then the period of protection applies to each section individually.

Copyright protection typically lasts up to seventy years after the author's death. However, there are also special cases that apply to works with multiple authors, audio-visual works, etc. They are explained briefly below:

• Multiple authors
  If a work has multiple authors, the seventy-year term referred to above is calculated as from the death of the longest-living author.
• Audio-visual works
  The seventy-year term commences from the death of the longest-living among the following persons: the principal director, the scriptwriter, the writer of the texts, the composer of the music created especially for the film.
• Anonymous works or works written under a pseudonym
  A seventy-year term cannot be calculated for anonymous works or works written under a pseudonym. The alternative is seventy years commencing from the date on which the work becomes publicly available, but this event must take place within seventy years after the creation of the work.
  If the pseudonym leaves no doubt concerning the author's identity or if the author identifies himself/herself during the seventy years following the publication of the work, the conventional protection period of seventy years after the author's death will apply.
• Publication after the author's death
  Suppose a work is first published more than seventy years after its author's death. In that case, the person initiating the publication of the work (e.g. the heirs, the finder of an unpublished manuscript or, for letters, the heirs of the person to whom the letters were addressed) will acquire a form of protection equivalent to the property rights held by the author, to which a validity period of twenty-years applies calculated from the 1st of January in the year following the work's first publication or public communication.
  
  Attention: If the work is published or publicly disseminated within seventy years after its creation, the standard rule applies: the work is protected until seventy years after its author's death, but the legal successors enjoy this protection.

If the author has not yet transferred his rights and no other persons hold rights to elements of his work, he may choose to place his work under a free licence. Such a licence gives much freedom to the user but, at the same time, allows the author to impose certain conditions.

A commonly used licence is the Creative Commons licence.

You retain all copyright by attaching a Creative Commons licence to your work. You may copy, distribute and communicate your publication under the condition that your name is mentioned and under the conditions you specify. You can determine the scope of the licence yourself (e.g. not allowing commercial use, not allowing derivative works, ...). On the Creative Commons website, you can choose from several licences.

 UHasselt applies the following definition of plagiarism (taken from the Education and Examination Regulations (pdf, 671 KB):

'Plagiarism is an irregularity that entails copying or translating another’s work in an identical or slightly modified form without providing an adequate citation of the source. Engaging third parties to compile texts on your behalf is also considered plagiarism.'

'...copying or translating of the work...'

Work = a text (or a fragment thereof), images, figures, graphics, sound or image recordings, diagrams, etc.

• printed work: books, magazine articles, journal articles, etc..
• digital work: online encyclopedias, e-books, etc.

'...in an identical or slightly modified form...'

• Quotation = literal replication of a text fragment between double quotation marks (" ") (or marked in any other way as indicated in the style guide used by the publisher, journal, or assignment).
• Paraphrasing = acquisition of a person’s ideas or propositions in a slightly modified form, i.e. restated in your own words.
• Translation = translating texts in another language, for example, from English into Dutch.

'...without providing an adequate citation of the source.'

Quoting, paraphrasing or translating texts without citing the source = plagiarism.

• Student assignments:
  Every assignment uploaded by a student to Blackboard is checked for plagiarism.

• Lecturer files:
  Every file uploaded by a lecturer to Blackboard can be checked for plagiarism via ‘Direct Submit’.

• Bachelor’s and master’s theses:
  When you hand in your bachelor’s or master’s thesis it will be checked for plagiarism.

If you wish to publish a work into which an image of one or more persons has been incorporated, you must obtain prior consent from the person or persons involved before you can distribute (or further distribute) this visual material. Every person holds image rights. This means that the creation and distribution of visual images of every individualised and recognisable person is subject to the consent of the person involved! This is regardless of the medium involved: a photograph, drawing, painting, video images, etc. Additionally, granting permission to create an image does not automatically mean permission to distribute this image. To avoid future problems, use this template (*.docx)(in Dutch) that will serve to establish a written record of consent.

If you have not transferred the copyright on the publications concerned to the publisher, you can include them in your PhD without any problems.

If you did transfer your copyright, you only have to ask permission from your publisher in case of publication. If your PhD is not made public, no consent is needed, although you will always have to mention the original source, your own publication.

To be clear: in your PhD you can always quote from your own publications without permission (cf: right of citation).

The authors of a collaborative work (the 'co-authors') generally regulate their mutual relations by agreement.

If no agreement exists between the co-authors and their respective contributions can be divided, the work will be considered a divisible work. In this case, the copyright will be exercised on the entire work jointly, but each author will be entitled to commercialize his or her own contribution independently without the intervention of his/her co-authors (e.g. if a book contains illustrations, the author who created the illustrations will be entitled to commercialize these independently). However, the co-authors may not publish their own contribution in another work (e.g. the author of the illustrations may not engage another author to write a new text to go with the aforementioned illustrations).

If the respective contributions of the co-authors are not divisible, one speaks of an indivisible work. In that case, the law - in the absence of an agreement - provides for the principle that the co-authors exercise their rights to the creation jointly and equally. This also means that decisions on what may happen to the work must be taken with the approval of all co-authors.

In principle, you are free to decide whether, when and under what conditions you distribute your work openly via the Internet. In certain situations, however, this right will not apply or will be limited:

• If you have transferred your copyrights (e.g. to a publisher), you will have to obtain permission from the new rights holder to make your work available.
• If you have made certain contractual arrangements about your work, you must comply with them (e.g. prohibition to publish during a certain period of time)
• If more than one author is involved in your work, you must ask permission from each of them
• If you have used material from others in your work, you must be very careful. Only in the case of citations, you do not need to ask permission, in all other cases you do. This also applies to MOOCs, as these are freely accessible to everyone.

If you make your work available via the Internet, you can state that everyone is free to use it. However, you can also impose restrictions, such as an obligation to mention one's name, no commercial use, etc. A good tool for this is a Creative Commons license. For computer programs, we recommend the licences of the Open Source Initiative.

If you notice that your work is being plagiarized, please report this to the Commission on scientific integrity.

 By adding the SPARC Author Addendum to the copyright agreement you received from the publisher, you retain the following rights:

• The right to reproduce, distribute, and publicly communicate your article through any medium and for non-commercial purposes.
• The right to create derivative works based on your article.
• The right to grant others permission for non-commercial use of your article as long as you are acknowledged as the author of the article, and the journal in which the article is published is cited as the source of first publication.

This means you can make copies of your article and distribute them for educational and research purposes. You can also share your article on personal or institutional websites and place it in Open Access digital repositories, such as the Document Server, allowing for broader access to your work.

By adding a Creative Commons license to your work, you retain all copyright and allow copying, distribution, and communication of your publication under the condition that your name is attributed and according to the terms you set yourself. You can fully determine the scope of the license (e.g., disallowing commercial use, disallowing derivative works, etc.). On the Creative Commons website, you can choose from a variety of licenses.

The law provides for a number of situations in which copyright is restricted. In those cases, you do not have to ask the author's permission to reproduce or communicate the work to others. The list of such exceptions is long, hence the choice to mention below mainly those that are relevant in an academic context. The complete overview can be found in the Belgian Copyright Act (Dutch).

• Private use (reprographics & private copy)
• Illustrative use in teaching or scientific research (reproduction, communication en display for illustration in teaching)
• 'On campus' announcements
• Right to quote
• Panorama freedom

Private use

Reprographics

If a work of authorship has been lawfully published, the author may not oppose the (partial or complete) reproduction of articles, works of visual or graphic art, or short fragments (1 to 2 pages) from other works, except for sheet music, intended for internal professional use, provided that no financial gain is pursued and the normal exploitation of the work does not suffer as a result. Internal-professional use refers to internal use within an organization or company (e.g., UHasselt). This exception only applies to paper reproductions and not to digital reproductions.

Private copy

If a work of authorship has been lawfully published, the author will not be able to object to the partial or full reproduction of any work, except sheet music, intended for private use, provided that no financial gain is pursued and the normal exploitation of the work does not suffer as a result. Private use refers to the use within the limited circle of the family, i.e. private, and not limited to persons with whom one has a biological relationship. The reproduction must also be intended for this family circle. This exception applies to all possible reproductions, so from paper to paper, from digital to paper and from digital to digital.

Illustrative use in teaching or scientific research

Reproduction

For educational or academic research purposes, a teacher/researcher may reproduce (wholly or in part) his/her work and that of others (including training courses) or for the purpose of scientific research. This means, for example, copying, scanning, downloading, printing, putting on a USB stick, etc. You may also physically hand out copies, as long as this is done in the context of education or for scientific research. However, this is subject to a number of cumulative conditions:

• no profit is pursued;
• the normal exploitation of the protected works is not affected. The reproduction must, therefore, not have a negative effect on the sale of the works;
• it takes place in the context of the normal activities of the institution;
• the source and the author's name must be mentioned unless this proves impossible.

Reproduction may take place in any way, i.e. from paper to paper, from digital to paper, and from digital to digital. For the reproduction of sheet music, you do need to ask permission.

Examples:

• A student photocopies the press articles relating to his thesis research from the library.
• A doctoral student scans an illustration that she finds in an academic book.

For your information: In order to compensate the authors of protected works, the university pays a remuneration via so-called copyright management companies.

Communication

For educational or academic research purposes, a lecturer/researcher may place his/her work and that of others (either in full or in part, and either on paper or digital) as well as links to websites on Blackboard, or make it available via another secure environment whose access is controlled by an officially recognised educational institution, both for students and for participants of a training course at UHasselt. However, this is subject to a number of cumulative conditions:

• no profit is pursued;
• the normal exploitation of the protected works is not affected. The communication must, therefore, not have a negative effect on the sale of the works;
• it takes place in the context of the normal activities of the institution;
• the source and the author's name must be mentioned unless this proves impossible.

Please note: Do not use the open internet to distribute copyright-protected material, unless it is a quotation. Otherwise, you are committing a copyright infringement. However, links, including embedded and framed links, are permitted.

Display for illustration in teaching

You may show copyright-protected material (either in full or in part) during your lectures as an illustration for teaching. By showing, we understand both digital (e.g. a PowerPoint presentation) and (audio) visual work to be displayed, listened to, viewed, etc. However, you must observe the following conditions cumulatively:

• No costs may be charged. If this is the case (e.g. via entrance fees), you must request copyright permission.
• The screening must take place in the context of education. This may also take place outside the institution's premises, but your target audience must be limited to students and educational staff.

You may distribute copies of copyright-protected material or fragments of it as support during the screening.

You also have the option of sharing the material with your students via Blackboard. Different rules apply to this.

'On campus' announcements

Libraries, museums, archives, and scientific and educational institutes are permitted to make works available within the confines of their own premises (‘on campus’), also in digital form. This takes place via special terminals (or access points) to which you only have access in the institution. This type of access is considered ‘on site’ access and may be used only for the purposes of research or individual study. It is granted free of charge.

Right to quote

A quote does not infringe copyright if a series of cumulative conditions are met:

• You may only quote from works that have been lawfully published.
• You may only use the quotation for the purposes of criticism, polemic, review or teaching or in the context of scientific work.
• Quotes may only be used in accordance with fair professional practice. For example, you may not quote so much that it is no longer necessary for the reader to buy the work quoted.
• You must mention the source and the author's name when quoting, unless this proves impossible.
• The quote must be short (there are no really strict rules on this. It must be considered, taking into account the length of the original work and the purpose of the quote). In Belgium, you may quote a work of visual art in full. If you want to do this in a foreign publication or online, contact the publisher of the publication in which the work is depicted to ask for permission if necessary.

Panorama freedom

Under the panorama freedom, works of visual, graphic or architectural art may be photographed and communicated to the public if the following conditions are met:

• The works are designed to be placed permanently in public places
  These public places have to be open to the public 24/7 and can be both inside and outside. Hence, the following works remain protected by copyright:
  • works in public museums or in other buildings with closing hours;
  • works from a temporary exhibition;
  • works that were not designed to be placed permanently in public places, but have been relocated to a public place after a while.
• The work has to be reproduced in its current environment
  It is prohibited to reproduce the work in a different environment, for example, to edit the image and in this way place the image in a different context.
• The reproduction should neither conflict with a normal exploitation of the work nor unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author. Hence, direct or indirect commercial use is prohibited. If you want to put for instance a photograph from the Atomium on a commercial blog, you will still have to consider reimbursing the copyright.

In the above exceptions, source citation is mandatory. Therefore, you must always mention the name of the author and the source from which you have taken the quote (book, journal, etc.). The year of publication and other practical details are also useful.

For your information: There are also copyright works that are subject to a free licence, whereby you no longer need to ask the author's permission to use his work freely, subject to certain conditions.

You may link to copyright-protected material that has been legally posted on the Internet or via a secure network, i.e. with the permission of the rights holder, but without bypassing technical security measures to protect the material. This is allowed both via Blackboard and via the open internet. Embedded and framed links are also permitted.

By editing, we mean paraphrasing, summarising, translating, reworking, rebuilding, making a compilation, etc. The copying of ideas (e.g. taking inspiration from a story, method or theory) is not covered. Copyright, by the way, only protects the specific form of the work, and not the underlying ideas, concepts, styles, methods, etc. For example, in a literary work, protection is granted to the text of the story itself (being the form of the creation), but not to the underlying narrative (being the abstract ideas behind the creation or the material facts).

Permission is not required for adaptations if these are done in the context of education or scientific research. However, the following conditions must be respected:

• Always mention the source and the author's name, unless this turns out to be impossible.
• Reproduce the content of the source correctly and in accordance with the intention of the original source. For example, make sure that the content of the original work is not distorted and that you do not damage the reputation of the author or the integrity of the work.

Outside the context of education or research, permission is required and you must also comply with the same conditions as for adaptations to illustrate education or scientific research. It is also advisable to describe the change(s) to the original work in an agreement with the author, for example in an e-mail, in which the author agrees to the proposed adaptations. In this way, you avoid possible problems.

For your information: If your adaptation is original in itself, you automatically obtain copyright on it as well.

There are many exceptions in which you do not need to ask permission to reproduce or communicate a copyright-protected work to others. If none of these exceptions applies, you must request permission. Usually, you contact the publisher about this. However, if the author of the work has assigned his/her rights to a collective management compagnie, you should contact the latter for permission. If none of these scenarios is the case, please contact the author directly.

The Internet is full of data: downloadable software, photos, texts, etc. The fact that these are easily accessible, however, does not mean that they can simply be copied and used. Online data are also subject to copyright and therefore, in principle, you must respect the general rules of copyright.

For example, Open Access channels promote access to all kinds of articles without the authors automatically relinquishing all their rights.
However, online you can also find data with far-reaching usage rights for third parties, also called "licences". This is the situation of copyleft, where an original work and all its derivatives can be freely adapted, expanded and improved at any time. It may be, for example, a 'creative commons license', whereby copying, distribution and communication of the work is permitted under certain conditions.

In this context, we define a reader as a collection of (excerpts from) integral works by one or more authors as a supplement to your course.

If you, as a lecturer, want to put together a reader and make it available to your students, you do not need permission from the authors in question if you respect the rules regarding the reproduction of didactic work / other copyrighted material. In concrete terms, this means that you observe the following conditions cumulatively:

• no profit is pursued (you may charge a fee for the costs you incur in printing the reader);
• the normal exploitation of the protected works is not affected, so distributing the reader may not have a negative impact on the sale of the publications it contains;
• you may only use works (or excerpts from works) that you include in your reader to illustrate education, i.e. as part of or an explanation for your course. This also means that the reader may only be made available to students who are registered for the course for which the reader is intended;
• the source and the name of the author must be mentioned unless this proves impossible.

If you can tick all the above boxes, the size of your reader is basically not important. If this is not the case, you should still ask the authors for their permission.

Tips for distributing your reader:

• If you distribute your reader on paper to your students, it is best to do this in the classroom or via the course service of your institution, not via a bookstore, because then the cost of printing may exceed the mere cost price, and the reader can also be purchased by a wider audience. This violates the above-mentioned conditions, and permission must therefore be requested from all authors.
• If you make your reader available digitally, do so via Blackboard - or via another secure environment whose access is controlled by an officially recognized educational institution - and only for the registered students, so not via the open internet unless you request permission from all authors.

For employees and officials of universities, the Codex Higher Education (Dutch) states that property rights on "inventions" automatically belong to the university. By 'inventions', the legislator means, among other things, computer programs and databases that can be used for commercial purposes with a view to an industrial or agricultural application. As an exception to the general rule, not the staff members, but UHasselt is the author of software and databases.

Databases

When are databases protected by copyright?

Databases are protected by copyright if their structure is original, i.e. if they bear witness to an "original intellectual creation", for instance, because the data are ordered and arranged in a certain manner. It is important here that the creator has not only been guided by technical or logical guidelines but has also made original choices. The fact that the creation of the database has cost a lot of effort and money does not ensure copyright protection.

An example: A telephone directory which is arranged purely alphabetically is not protected by copyright because the arrangement is not original. However, if a directory classifies people according to certain criteria, for example, according to their expertise, it does fall under copyright. The creator has made an original choice regarding the structure.

Please note:

• If the contents of the database are original, they are also protected by copyright.
• If the database is not protected by copyright, the sui generis right or database right may still apply.

Who has the copyright on databases?

As a rule, the copyright on a database belongs to the person who created it. However, if the database was created within the framework of an employment contract, the employer, not the employee, automatically owns the property rights to the database, unless otherwise agreed.

For your information:

• The above rule does not apply to databases in the cultural sector, where classical copyright applies: the maker is the holder of the copyright unless otherwise agreed.
• In general, the property rights on databases are already vested in the producer, i.e. the person who invested in the creation of the database and is usually also the employer.

Software

When is software protected by copyright?

You will find more information on the website of the FOD Economie (Federal Public Service Economy).

Who is the owner of the copyright on software?

The creators of the software, i.e. those who developed its architecture, structure and method of construction and writing, are considered to be the authors. However, if the software was created as part of an employment contract, the employer, not the employee, automatically has the property rights to the software unless otherwise agreed. You can find more information on the website of the FOD Economie (Federal Public Service Economy).

Text and data mining (TDM) is the automated dissection and analysis of large amounts of digital text and/or other digital data to generate information such as patterns, trends or connections.

What about copyright?

Text and data mining (TDM) necessarily involves making copies of protected data, which are often retrieved from protected databases. In principle, you would therefore have to ask permission from the rights holders to engage in TDM. However, for academic research purposes, a teacher/researcher can perform text and datamining on content to which the university has lawful access. Copies of material made during such research must be stored with an appropriate level of security and may only be kept for the purpose of scientific research, including the verification of research results. This exception from the DSM directive of the European Commission has been transposed into Belgian law since 1 August 2022. It is mandatory, so copyright holders can never exclude this right for research organizations and heritage institutions (for example, in the subscription contract of a database).

Open source software is computer software distributed under an open source licence, giving users far-reaching possibilities to study, adapt, improve and/or distribute the source code. In contrast to classic software licences, an open source licence, therefore, grants many more rights to the user. Nevertheless, these rights are often subject to certain conditions, such as the obligation to mention the authors' names.

Examples of open source software are the Linux operating system, the Apache servers and the Firefox web browser. Examples of open source licenses are the GNU-GPL, the BSD and the MIT.

Please note:

• 'Open source' does not mean that there are no intellectual property rights on the software. Most software is protected by copyright.
• There are numerous open source licences, each with its own guidelines, so before you start working with open source software it is advisable to read the corresponding licence carefully.

No. The fact that the software is free does not mean that it is not covered by intellectual property rights. Most software is copyrighted and comes with a licence that defines the rights and obligations of the user. Usually, such a licence appears in the form of a text, and you have to tick that you agree. Some licences are very restrictive; others give a lot of freedom to the user. The latter are also called open source licences and apply to open source software. Finally, there is unlicensed software where you can't do anything without the express permission of the copyright holder.

Students can contact Dave Bosmans for more information about the use of the UHasselt logo. Researchers will find relevant guidelines on the intranet.

Yes, you can, provided that:

• you use the pictures for the purposes of criticism, polemics, review or education, or within the framework of academic activities
• you mention the name of the architect as your source. Attention: do not mention the address of the house, as this is an infringement of the privacy of the residents.

The above regulations are covered by one of the exceptions to copyright, i.e. the right to quote and apply to pictures of Belgian houses as well as pictures of foreign homes.

Please note: When you want to publish (part of) your thesis with a publisher, the normal copyright applies and you should ask for permission from the architect to include the pictures in your thesis.

Yes, you can, but you have to take into account the portrait rights of the persons concerned.

First of all, request permission for the translation from the author of the cartoon. As soon as you have obtained this permission, you can include the translated cartoon in your research under the following conditions:

• Only include the cartoon if it is scientifically relevant to your research;
• You mention the name of the cartoonist as a source reference.

Please note: As soon as you want to publish your research containing the translated cartoon with a publisher, the normal copyright applies, which means that you will have to ask permission from the author again for the inclusion of the cartoon in your research.

Belgian legislation

• Belgian copyright law (Dutch): Law concerning copyright and related rights
• Belgian software law (Dutch): Law concerning copyright on computer programs
• Belgian database law (Dutch): Law concerning copyright on databases
• MyUnisono: Website with information about the Unisono license

European legislation

• Website from the European Commission with news and information concerning copyright
• European directive on the legal protection of computer programs
• European directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society
• European directive amending Directive 2006/116/EC on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights
• European directive on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property
• European directive on the legal protection of databases
• European directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society
• European directive on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission
• European directive on the resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work of art
• European directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights
• European directive on certain permitted uses of orphan works
• European directive on the re-use of public sector information

International legislation

• Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works: an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
• The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WIPO Copyright Treaty or WCT): an international treaty on copyright law adopted by the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1996. It provides additional protections for copyright deemed necessary due to advances in information technology since the formation of previous copyright treaties before it.
• The World Intellectual Property Organization Performances and Phonograms Treaty ( WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty or WPPT): an international treaty signed by the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization and adopted in Geneva in 1996, with an objective to develop and maintain the protection of the rights of performers and producers of phonograms in a manner as effective and uniform as possible.
• International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations
• TRIPs agreement: an international agreement administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulation as applied to nationals of other WTO Members.
• Universal Copyright Convention

• SABAM: the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers is an organization with the purpose of collecting, distributing, administering, and managing all copyrights in Belgium and in other countries with which reciprocal agreements have been established.
• deAuteurs: collects and distributes copyrights on behalf of Dutch-speaking authors active in the following domains: audiovisual, performing arts, literature, comics, and illustration.
• SOFAM (Dutch | French): collecting society specialized in visual arts.
• Playright: the Belgian society that ensures the collective management of performing artists’ neighbouring rights
• Assucopie (French): collects and distributes reprography rights on behalf of educational, scientific, and university authors.
• Scam: non-profit civil collective company that manages the copyrights or royalties for authors in the categories of audiovisual documentaries and radio documentaries, literature and other writings, images, illustrations, and photographs, scientific and pedagogical works, multimedia, and non-fiction.
• SACD: non-profit civil collective company that manages the copyrights or royalties for authors in the categories of television and radio fiction, cinema film, theater, dance, stage music, and multimedia fiction.
• Auvibel: collective rights management company for the private copying of  protected works
• SIMIM: manages the rights of music producers.
• JAM (Dutch | French): manages the copyright of journalists.
• SEMU: collective rights management company for music publishers
• REPROBEL: the Belgian central collecting society responsible for the collection and distribution among authors and publishers of legal licence remunerations for reprography and for public lending.
• Partnership for Copyright & Society (SA&S): a partnership of Flemish (Belgium) organizations in the domain of culture, heritage, education and science. They collaborate on issues of copyright to strengthen their expertise and position, to the benefit of their users and in the interest of the public domain.

• ThatsIP (Dutch): ThatsIP is a Dutch-language e-learning platform on intellectual property (IP), specifically designed for students from higher education institutions in Flanders. The goal of ThatsIP is to raise awareness among students about what intellectual property is, teach them to distinguish between different IP rights, and let them experience the relevance of these rights in concrete situations.
• Webpages from the FPS Economy (FOD Economie) with information about Belgian regulations for different intellectual property rights: copyrights, related rights, rights for patents, trademarks, designs or models, databases, plant varieties, geographical indications and protected designations of origin, topographies of semiconductor products.