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Copyright and your research

Copyright, data and datasets

Data can come in many forms and is generally thought of as a plural. A date by itself is a piece of information; a series of dates can be data. Here are some other common examples:

  • addresses
  • names
  • temperatures
  • house prices
  • rainfall.

As these are very simple and factual, they would not get copyright protection on their own.

Data can come in more complex forms, such as:

  • images
  • sound recordings
  • written works
  • music.

In these cases, the data will likely have copyright protection.

The collection of data is often called the dataset, and this may also have copyright protection. The choice of what data goes into the dataset, how it is ordered and how it is arranged can all give it copyright protection. Most of the time though it is not copyright that protects a dataset but the license you access it under. Be mindful of what you agree to when accessing a dataset.

It is important to consider how data is expressed. This means when data is put into tables, images, figures, words etc. When data is expressed in this way it will very likely have copyright protection. Take for example a dataset of house prices in Victoria. The individual numbers will not be protected. The dataset may not have copyright protection either, but a table comparing average home prices across different electorates will.

Who owns copyright in data and datasets?

The copyright owner is usually the person or organisation that created it, however this may change depending on any contracts or agreements that may be relevant to the data, your employment or the research project. Read more on who owns copyright.

If there is no copyright in the data or dataset, that does not mean there is no owner and it is free to use and access by everyone. Think of it more as physical property. The owner can still say who gets to use the dataset and use contract law and licensing to control how it is used.

Using data and datasets

You can generally reproduce raw data that is not protected by copyright without requiring permission, however you need to check any access agreement and cite your source. For instance, a company may pay a large sum of money to RP Logic to access their housing datasets, and they agree not to reproduce or share the datasets.

When you make your own expressions of data (like graphs and tables) it is possible you may make something very similar to a work that already exists. You are not required to be aware of every copyrighted work in the world, so do not stress. What you shouldn’t do is start with an existing work and modify it. There is no such thing as changing a work by a certain percent to avoid copyright. If your starting point is another work, you will have to deal with its copyright. Contact the Copyright Team (copyright@deakin.edu.au) if you need further advice on this.

If you can't express the data differently, you may require permission from the owner or publisher of the data to use their expression.

There may be access agreements, privacy or other legal issues, like patents pending, commercial or in-confidence contracts, that may prevent you from publishing or sharing data without permission or a licence.

Being mindful about data (Sensitive data, ICIP and AI)

Data can be sensitive for a variety of reasons. It’s important to be mindful of the nature of the data you’re working with and carefully consider whether your use, sharing or publishing may be problematic. For more information on managing sensitive research data, you may find the information in the Research Data Management Module and the Research Data Security Classification table helpful.

Data that incorporates Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property requires respectful and appropriate management. For more information, please consult Respectful research.

Using data with AI tools or platforms also demands careful attention to ensure you are not in breach of agreements, guidelines and conduct. The following pages present tailored information to researchers around the use of AI:

If you can’t find the information you need to guide your actions with data, please contact your librarian for more in-depth support.

Licensing datasets

You may be encouraged to share or license your research datasets. Datasets can be licensed by applying an appropriate Creative Commons (CC) licence or by authoring custom conditions for the use of the dataset.

If you are employed or have received funding to conduct your research, you may not be the copyright owner. You will need to consult with the copyright owner before you apply a licence to the dataset.

In addition, if the dataset is made of data that are copyrighted works themselves (like images) you may need to consider if you have the right to put a CC license over them. If there is no copyright in the dataset, a CC license is not appropriate, and it should be managed by contract agreement (if you want to keep control) or have a CC 0 Public domain declaration to signal people that there is no copyright.

Your research or funding contract may specify the type of licence you need to publish your datasets with or may provide other important instructions.

If you need help determining how to license your datasets or authoring custom conditions, please contact the Copyright Office (copyright@deakin.edu.au) for support.

Research, funding and employment contracts

Research, funding and employment contracts can affect:

  • who owns copyright in your research
  • your ability to publish, re-use, license and distribute your research.

Some research, funding or employment contracts may specify:

  • your research must be published via open access
  • you cannot publish your research at all.

Managing rights

If you are a copyright holder and select conditions or a licence that result in your retaining rights (anything other than CC BY or CC0), it’s important to have a plan for how you will manage them.

If you are the sole copyright owner, all the decisions relating to requests for the data are managed by you and you have a responsibility to ensure that your contact details are up to date and available. Copyright is a form of property (intellectual property) and like other forms of property, you should also plan for who you will bequeath your copyrights to.

If you share the copyright in the data and need to manage rights, you and the other copyright holders (such as your co-authors) should have a written agreement that outlines how the rights retained will be managed. Note that all copyright holders must agree on re-use, permissions and fees.

Consider:

  • Who will be the contact person and responsible for communicating with the requestor and updating other copyright holders about when a request has been made?
  • Will you discuss each request? Or will you set parameters that allow the contact to grant certain types of permission without the need to consult (including for your own individual uses in the future).
  • Who will be responsible for collecting and distributing fees if a fee is charged?
  • Who will be responsible for managing infringement of your data?
  • What happens if one of you passes away or cannot be contacted?

Protect your work

There are a variety of methods that you can use to protect your work, such as:

  • licensing and copyright information
  • permissions information
  • watermarking
  • metadata.

Technological protection measures

Technological protection measures can digitally control how a work is accessed, used or shared. Circumnavigating, altering or breaking these measures (and similar measures such as Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Electronic Rights Management Information (ERMI)) may be considered an offence. If you have reason to circumnavigate, alter or break a TPM, please contact the Copyright Office (copyright@deakin.edu.au) for more information.

Infringement

Copyright does not protect ideas or information. It only protects the expression of those ideas and information. It is not a copyright infringement for someone to use the same idea as you.

For infringement to occur:

  • copyright must subsist in your work
  • they must be reproducing a substantial amount of your work
  • they must be doing so without your permission
  • they must be breaking their local copyright laws.

People in other countries may be able to do more with your work than you can do with someone else's work.

Allegations of infringement and false allegations are taken very seriously. Investigate a circumstance thoroughly before making an allegation.

Get in touch

The Copyright Team provides copyright help to everyone within Deakin. We manage Deakin University copyright and external requests to use University works.

Contact the Copyright team