Yes, provided:
it is for your research or study; and
the use is fair
Yes, provided:
it is for your research or study; and
the use is fair
A person working in a library may copy certain types of material for you (such as print material or artistic works) for your research or study, under special provisions for libraries in the Copyright Act. You will need to sign a written request stating that you need the material for your research or study and will not use it for any other purpose. If the work you want to copy is commercially available, the librarian can only copy a “reasonable portion” of it. For more information, see our book Libraries & Copyright.
It is unlikely that someone working in another type of organisation, such as a print shop, could rely on the research or study provisions to copy for you. In one case, the Court held that a commercial press clipping service was not able to copy for “research” or “study”, even if the recipients of the press clippings wanted clippings for research or study: the press clipping company’s purpose in copying was to make money.
However, another person may be able to make a copy for you, if the organisation for which the person works has a copyright licence that allows it to copy the material you want. For example, many organisations (including clipping services) have agreements with Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) whereby, in return for a fee, the organisation’s staff can make photocopies.
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.
If you want to use published material, the first point of contact is usually the publisher, who may be able to give you permission or give you some information about whom to contact. For unpublished material, the first point of contact is usually the author.
Plagiarism generally means taking and using another person’s ideas, writing or inventions as your own. Plagiarism is not an area of law and not all acts of plagiarism are necessarily infringements of copyright. For instance, a writer or academic may breach the ethical standards expected of him or her by presenting someone else’s ideas as his or her own, but not infringe copyright because he or she has expressed the other person’s ideas in his own way.