Copyright requirements for the HDR poster competition

When preparing a poster to showcase your research, chances are most of the information you include will be of your own creation. You'll be describing your research, highlighting discoveries you've made, displaying photos, diagrams or charts of your own devising, and generally presenting your research aims and intended outcomes. Copyright in all of this kind of content, as generated by you, will usually* be owned by you, as author/creator.

But in some cases you may also seek to include content in your poster which was authored or created by someone else: 'third-party' content.

If the poster is destined for publication, or broad circulation (many copies to be distributed) or exposure (ie on the web), you should ensure that you have secured permission from the copyright owner to include that third-party content.

Slightly modifying or adapting the original content will not remove the need to obtain permission. In fact, if you need to modify or adapt the third-party content you should also make this clear to the copyright owner when seeking permission.

Permission won't be required for content that is already out of copyright or was made available as some kind of 'open licence' (like a Creative Commons style licence).

For what kind of things do I need copyright permission?

all kinds of third-party content, whether published or not. For unpublished content the original author/creator will usually be the copyright holder; for published content the publisher / production company / organisation who owns the website, etc., may be the copyright holder, rather than the work's author.
text: as a general rule, if the amount of text taken from a single source work is more than 1% of that work, you will definitely need permission. Text on the Internet is still usually copyright protected - check the source site's terms of use (under 'copyright' or 'legal' or 'disclaimer'). Be especially careful when reproducing song lyrics - in some cases even a phrase or two from these might be deemed 'substantial' enough to cause a risk of infringement.
visual content of all kinds: photos, art works, maps, charts, images, diagrams, screen grabs, stills from TV shows, films, DVDs or software programs etc. Simply redrawing a diagram may not avoid infringement if the end result is essentially the same as the original. Note also that if you take a photograph of an artwork yourself, and your intention was to reproduce that artistic work (ie it isn’t incidental or just part of the general background to the shot) there is still underlying copyright in the artwork you've reproduced in your photo.
adaptations of works - including translations, recoloured versions of images, maps which have been annotated or enhanced.

For tips on how to approach copyright owners read 'Students: Tips for seeking permission' page on the Monash University copyright website.

* Your own research content is usually owned by you BUT be careful of any contractual obligations you may have if you have already had to ASSIGN copyright over to Monash or other party: an industry sponsor for example. Remember that, in some cases, they may need to authorise the release of data or research findings for any sort of publication or public presentation.