Copyright ownership
What does it mean to be the copyright owner?
Owning the copyright of a work provides control over the rights covering if or how a work is reproduced, shared, published, performed, modified or reused. This means no one else can do any of these things with your copyright material without your permission, unless under an exception in the Act.
The first copyright owner of a work is generally the creator or author of that material, unless they have entered into an agreement to the contrary. There is no requirement to register copyright - it comes into existence automatically once an idea is expressed in a material form (i.e. written down or stored in electronic form).
There are considerations for ownership when you create material at University which depend on your role, as a student, a researcher, or a staff member, underpinned by the Intellectual Property Policy.
Copyright is generally owned by the creator/author of the material. There is no requirement to register copyright - it comes into existence automatically once an idea is expressed in a material form (i.e. written down or stored in electronic form).
If two or more people make inseparable contributions to the creation of copyright material then they will both own the material. Each owner must give permission when dealing with the copyright material that is jointly owned.
Copyright created by a staff member in their employment, scholarship or research with the University (or for which the University has contributed other University-owned intellectual property or has made a specific contribution of funding, resource, facilities, apparatus or supervision) will be owned by the University.
However the University will grant a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to reproduce, publish, perform, broadcast, disseminate and otherwise use for teaching and research purposes at the University for any copyright material created by a staff member as detailed above (if the material does not have any potential for commercial exploitation).
For those participating in research projects at the University's request (e.g. PhD students working under University funds or in collaboration with a staff member and/or other postgraduate research student) copyright will be owned by the University (except for copyright in a student's thesis where the student retains copyright).
For more detailed information regarding IP ownership refer to the Intellectual Property Policy.
Under the policy students retain ownership of copyright in material they create in the course of their studies.
For those participating in research projects at the University's request (e.g. PhD students working under University funds or in collaboration with a staff member and/or other postgraduate research student) copyright will be owned by the University (except for copyright in a student's thesis where the student retains copyright). See Research Data Management Procedure.
Copyright can be bought or sold, or licenced out. There is no requirement to register copyright - it comes into existence automatically once an idea is expressed in a material form (i.e. written down or stored in electronic form).