Dealing with Copyright in Education

More information

• Three ways to use materials for free in your education 

  We briefly explain 3 ways how you can use educational materials free of charge. We therefore ask you to use these methods as much as possible. Please note that citation is always required. 

  1. Use links to the publication that are lawfully available on the internet as much as possible or use links to publications for which the University Library has a licence. 
  2. Make use of open educational resources or Open Access materials. Materials which are published Open Access or with a Creative Commons licence can be used free of charge in education and Canvas.
  3. Use VU Reading Lists. This Reading List Manager not only ensures that you can easily provide your teaching materials to students, but also that you do it in the right way.

  Various instructional videos are available about, among other things, the use of educational materials in Canvas.

• Finding open alternatives

  The LibGuide Dealing with Copyright in Education is partly dedicated to open educational resources (OER). Here, you can find articles, videos and other material to be used free of charge. To find open educational resources in your field, you can also get in touch with the Subject Librarian of your faculty. 

  The University Library also supports the development of new open educational resources, such as textbooks, podcasts, knowledge clips and other learning material.

• Easy Access regulation: maximum of 40 pages / 20% from a work

  If it is not possible to use a link to the work or to use an open alternative, it is possible to use copyrighted content under the conditions of the Easy Access regulation. The Easy Access regulation stipulates that higher education institutions may use a maximum of 40 pages from a work, without having to ask for permission. The condition is that this is no more than 20% of the entire work. Within this percentage we speak of so-called “short acquisitions” and/or “medium-term acquisitions”. All the use that falls within this has been bought off from the scheme and no additional amount has to be paid or permission to be arranged. 

  This infographic explains how it works.

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