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Copyright linking guidelines

Music, films, TV programs, photos, cartoons and other information on the internet are subject to copyright protection. The biggest risk of liability comes from film, TV and music files. In the Australian case Universal Music v Cooper (see www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2005/972.html) the owner of a website and the Internet Service Provider were liable for authorising copyright infringement by linking to pirated music files.

Deep linking, where links are made to material within a site, bypassing the home page, is also problematic. Some sites have a ‘no linking’ policy.

10 tips to avoid liability in this area

Check the terms and conditions of the material before linking
Is there information about using material from the site? If the terms and conditions on the website do not allow linking, you may need to seek permission from the webmaster.
Seek permission of the website owner if they do not allow linking or when using screenshots from their site
Where users are asked not to link to a site, it would be courteous to ask for permission. Keep copies of any correspondence on the matter. Written documentation of permission is preferable.
Contact Readings and Reserve about material scanned or placed on the web and linking to this
Readings and Reserve are the central unit in the University, for communicating print material online under the Part VB CAL licence. You should not scan and link to material independently of Readings and Reserve. They can check the copyright requirements for material that is linked to from your reading list. Contact Readings and Reserve - see www.lib.monash.edu/contacts/rrs.html
Check the terms and conditions of online subscription databases before linking to articles
The library or your department may provide access to online journal articles from databases. Each of these have their own license conditions. You may not be allowed to link to online articles – check with Lisa.Smith@lib.monash.edu.au for database terms and conditions
Don’t link to MP3 files or films on the web unless you have permission of the copyright owner
Film and music production companies are very vigilant in tracking and pursuing copyright infringers. They have software that trawls the web looking for pirate copies. As the highest risk area staff should not be linking to music files or film files.
Correctly cite your material.
Provide full details of the author or website owner when linking to or using their material.
Don’t deep link to materials unless it is made clear when the user is moving to another site
If you are deep linking to information on a non-Monash site, it needs to be made obvious to the user, that the material was not created or located on the Monash site.
Don’t link to confidential material
Sometimes a website may contain information that is completely unauthorised. An example is commercially sensitive information that does not originate from that site eg a profit report of a company on an unrelated site. Be suspicious of information that seems unrelated to the site.
Avoid linking to material where the source cannot be traced
If material is infringing, it is less likely to have details about its source. There are many websites with copies of films, TV programs or music files available for downloading, but unless the webmaster has permission from the owner, this is copyright infringement. Linking to such a site or files on the site, might be authorising this infringement.
Don’t link to material that has no citation details
If there is a photo on a website that the site owner is happy for you to reproduce, are you sure they are the copyright owner of that photo? All authors, including photographers need to be cited unless they give permission not to be attributed. If the website owner doesn’t have these details, it could be an infringing file. Linking to this material could be authorisation of infringement.