Generally, copyright does not protect a name, whether it is the real name of an author or a pen-name. However, if the writer has established a reputation in a pen-name, he or she may be able to prevent others from using the name in a way which causes confusion by relying on the law of passing off, or fair trading laws. A distinctive name may also be registrable as a trade mark.
Under the Copyright Act, educational institutions are entitled to copy certain material, including journal articles, for educational purposes. The institution must be covered by a "remuneration notice" (an undertaking to pay copyright fees). The fees are paid to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), which distributes them to the rights owners. CAL’s information about which material has been used comes from a statistical sample of use rather than from records of each and every use.
Written works are protected automatically as soon as they are “fixed”; for example, written on paper or saved to computer disk. It is not necessary that your name appear on a work for it to be protected. Thus, your use of a pen name or pseudonym will not generally affect the copyright protection for your work. A work first published under a pseudonym may only be protected for 70 years from the year of publication, rather than 70 years from the year of the author’s death, if the author’s identity cannot be ascertained.
Generally, you do not avoid infringement by making changes. If the altered version includes an important part of the work, then you should get permission.
An abstract or summary of an article that a publisher or author provides with an article or paper (usually in academic, technical or scientific journals) is generally likely to be a “literary work” in its own right. This means that if you want to copy it (for example, to circulate to staff or to put into a catalogue), you will generally need permission.
However, if you are working in an educational institution or within a State or Federal government department or agency, you may be able to rely on provisions in the Copyright Act to copy and use the abstract. If you are studying or researching, or you are a library copying the item for a researcher or student, you may also be able to copy the item (subject, in the case of libraries, to the various procedures you will need to follow). For further information, see our information sheets Libraries (non-profit): introduction to copyright; Educational institutions and Copying for research or study, available from the Copyright Council website.
In other cases, organisations with licences from Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), a collecting society whose members are authors and publishers, may be able to copy abstracts for certain purposes. Alternatively, permission might be obtained from the publisher, either on a case-by-case basis or, for example, before renewing a subscription.
You do not need permission to make an abstract or summary of a book or article unless the abstract or summary reproduces a “substantial part” of the way the information is expressed in the source work.
An example from US law concerned a half page, 300-word synopsis of a three act, forty-six page opera. The publisher of the opera unsuccessfully sued the publisher of the synopsis. The court held that the synopsis did “not use the author’s language ... [but gave] just enough information to put the reader on inquiry, precisely as … the review of a book or the description of a painting induces the reader to examine further”. The court in that case contrasted an abstract with an abridgment, which it described as a “colourable shortening of the original text”, indicating that people are more likely to need permission to make an abridged version of a work.
An example of an abridgment which infringed copyright is found in an early Australian case. In that case, the publishers of the Gippsland Mercury summarised news items from the Reuter’s news telegrams published in the Argus newspaper. The court held that the Mercury had made a “copy, colourable alteration or adaptation” that should be prevented.
The uncertainty in this area lies in predicting whether the amount of the source work taken amounts to an important, distinctive or essential part. This will be a question of fact and degree in each case. As a rule of thumb, you are unlikely to need permission if you just briefly outline the main points and arguments in a book or article.