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Library Library

Copyright Checker

For lecturers

When using or reusing copyrighted material in education, lecturers have to deal with laws and regulations surrounding copyright. This applies when you – for example – include magazine articles, book chapters or images in a reader, a presentation, Canvas or Teams. By using this copyright checker, you can be sure you are on the right track!

Always allowed

  • Linking to materials in the Library Catalogue CataloguePlus;
  • Linking to Open Access publications (with or without a Creative Commons licence);
  • Linking to any other place where a publication can legally be accessed;
  • Uploading material from databases for which the Library has a licence, if the database allows this. Information on how to check this.
  • Uploading non-commercial educational material created by yourself or at the UvA;
  • Referring to materials and having students look up the physical publication themselves. (The Library may make publications temporarily not-loanable. This gives all students an opportunity to make a copy for their personal use);
  • Using or reusing publications that are in the public domain (e.g. 70 years after the death of the rights holder, if copyright has not been transferred);
  • Linking to or embedding audiovisual material. You may show audiovisual material to aid in teaching on-site. Uploading audiovisual material in a digital learning environment is not allowed.

Allowed under conditions of the Easy Access Agreement

The UvA participates in the national Easy Access buyout scheme (2026-2031). This allows lecturers to use or reuse copyrighted material to aid in non-commercial teaching, if it is not possible to link to that material. In such case, the following conditions apply:

Texts

  1. Maximum of 40 pages from a publication;
  2. No more than 20% of the original publication.

Images

  1. Maximum of 10 works from the same creator;
  2. No more than 25 images from the same work.

Example

Does a publication count 100 pages? In that case, you may copy a maximum of 20 pages from this. Does a publication count 20 pages? In that case, you may copy a maximum of four pages.

Please note that an (academic) article is generally considered part of a journal issue and usually remains well under 40 pages and 20%.

Not allowed; now what?

Do you want to reuse more than 40 pages from a publication or more than 20% of a work?

  • Ask the Library if a digital edition can be purchased, to enable linking.
  • Contact the copyright holder (author or publisher) to seek permission. A reasonable compensation will usually be charged.
  • Ask the Library for assistance in arranging permission via Stichting UvO. Be aware that this involves additional costs for the faculty.

What about AI-generated material?

Copyrights and AI-generated material are still a grey area. If you want to use AI-generated content in your teaching, please refer to the tool used to generate the material. Be aware that many tools, such as ChatGPT, are not transparent about underlying sources, and source references are far from accurate for the time being.

UvA AI-Chat

Whether uploading copyright-protected material to the private UvA AI-Chat is permitted depends on the licence terms. Most publishers do not allow this. The UvA AI-Chat is suitable for using protected material for personal use, but if you share any outputs, such as teaching materials and personas, with students or others, there is a high risk that you will be infringing copyright.

Need help or advice?