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Copyright in Moodle courses

  • Copyright law: handling materials from the Internet

    • Copyright in Switzerland (URG)

      Even if the works are found freely online, they are generally copyright protected and cannot be used without further ado. A label like the © symbol or a text note such as “All rights reserved” is not needed to indicate that the content is protected.

      Art. 19 URG defines exceptions that allow the use of protected works, which are:

      • the personal use (passing on among friends and family),
      • use by a teacher and the class for educational purposes
      • and internal use in a company or institution for internal information and documentation.

      Thus, restrictions must be observed, especially upon publishing the materials, for example:

      • at conferences
      • in MOOCs on edX or Swiss MOOC Service
      • in videos for YouTube or Kaltura Mediaspace
      • in academic publications or theses or
      • on social media and blogs.

      In case of a broader audience, only use:

      • materials whose use is expressly permitted by open licences, for example via Creative Commons licences,
      • materials from the public domain (e.g. 70 years after the death of the author),
      • your own materials,
      • materials for which the author has provided you with written permission to use.

      See also: Swiss Copyright Act (CopA)

      Under CopA Art. 2(1), material is deemed to be protected if it:

      • is the intellectual creation of an individual,
      • exhibits an individual character, and
      • is expressed in a work.


      Pursuant to CopA Art. 2(2), such materials thus include written works, musical pieces, images, plans and maps as well as photographic and cinematographic works. Materials that are not considered protected works in a legal sense and are thus not copyright protected include:

      • images generated by machines or computers, such as surveillance camera recordings, 
      • legal texts, minutes issued by authorities and templates for business letters and
      • ideas that are not expressed in a work

      If a work that you would like to use is not covered by an open licence (e.g. a Creative Commons licence), ask the author (or the rights holder) for their consent where appropriate. When doing so, go into as much detail as possible about the planned use.
      To ensure you can prove the issuing of consent, you should permanently archive the relevant correspondence. If you do not receive consent, you can look for an alternative that is available under an open licence.

      See also: Where can I find openly licensed materials?

      The Swiss Copyright Act ( CopA) contains a so-called limitation and exception provision for use with a class in educational contexts (CopA Art. 19(1)(b)). This also applies to closed Moodle courses. While you can provide and use excerpts of copyright protected works, the provision of entire works (e.g. whole books or films) is also prohibited here.

      As soon as a classroom setting does not exist, for example if you want to use material as part of a university-wide Moodle course as well as in MOOCs, at conferences and at public lectures, you must adhere to the restrictions that apply to copyright protected works in general.

      In these contexts, use exclusively:
      • Openly licensed materials, e.g., under Creative Commons licenses.
      • Public domain materials (70 years after the death of the creators), or
      • materials for which you have obtained personal permission from the authors.
      • Citing works in publicly available educational materials is also allowed (see below).

      Under the Swiss Copyright Act, images, films and audio material may be cited in the same way as written texts. However, the right of quotation (CopA Art. 25) requires that the content of the material is dealt with in depth.

      • A quotation exists if the foreign work serves to illustrate or explain your own statements. A genuine reference between the cited work and your explanatory text is necessary. Pictures for decoration or as a substitute for own material do not fulfill this criterion.
      • The extent of the representation must correspond to the purpose of the citation. Only as much external material may be used as is necessary to illustrate/explain your own statement.
      • Furthermore, the identification of the source is obligatory. As with citing texts, name the original source with the cited image, video or audio contribution.

      The © symbol is an international symbol that is used in connection with copyright protected works. It indicates a work’s copyright holder.
      However, there is no requirement to use the © symbol. Copyright applies to a work as soon as it is created. Registration or other formalities, such as the use of the © symbol or “All rights reserved”, are not required.
      All works that can be freely found online and that are not covered under an open licence, such as a Creative Commons licence, are therefore copyright protected.

      Under CopA Art. 29(2), a work’s copyright protection expires 70 years after the death of the author. In the case of software, this period is 50 years.

      Works for which copyright has expired (in Switzerland, 70 years after the death of the author or final copyright holder), are deemed to be in the public domain (see CopA Art. 29).
      You are permitted to use, change and distribute these works even if no licence or public domain mark is attached.

      Copyright is divided into moral rights and rights of use.

      • The moral rights remain unchanged with you: you decide on initial publication and your name must be stated in connection with the work.
      • The rights of use for copyright protected works that university employees have created in performing their official duties lie with the university in accordance with the FaHG law governing the Zurich universities of applied sciences and arts §16(1)(b)).
        If you would like to use your own materials in another context outside of your teaching activities at the ZHAW, you can publish these (with consent) in accordance with the ZHAW Open Educational Resources (OER) Policy under an open licence (see details in a separate section, below).
        Or you can have the rights of use for the material transferred to you using the relevant form (ZHAW intranet, in German only).
      • For students is worth noting that, assignments and theses written in class at the ZHAW and/or supervised by ZHAW faculty are subject to the study program regulations or examination regulations. For the publication of these works, you need the consent of your lecturer. Please contact them.

      If you would like to use your teaching materials in another context outside of your teaching activities at the ZHAW, you have two options:

      1. Publication under an open license like Creative Commons (see details in a separate section): Obtain the consent of your line managers. For reasons of proof, you should keep the written confirmation of consent (e.g. e-mail). You can use your material under Creative Commens-licenses in any context.
      2. Have the rights of use transferred from the ZHAW to you: If you opt against open licensing, you can request that the rights of use for the material be transferred to you: Transfer agreement for rights of use in the GPM portal (Intranet, in German only).

      Take the warning seriously – provided it relates to a work that you have actually used. However, do not sign any cease-and-desist declarations, pay a contractual penalty or agree to a settlement without further ado. Firstly, check whether the accusation of a copyright infringement is actually justified.

      If possible, remove the content in question from the network and seek legal advice if you can.

      In connection with works that are created as part of your employment relationship at the ZHAW, it is best to consult the ZHAW Legal Service (intranet page available in German only).

      Find more information in the FAQs of CCdigitallaw.ch (Question 2.2.8-1).



      Certain Types of Materials

      In the Colourbox and Adobe Stock image databases, you will find professional photos that you may use in connection with your work at the ZHAW.
      For Colourbox, this applies only to internal purposes. The use for commercial purposes (brochures, external flyers, etc.) or public distribution of course material or presentations is not permitted.

      s. Instructions and information about Colourbox and Adobe Stock on the intranet (in German only).

      Please note: If you want to publish your material under a Creative Commons license as OER - Open Educational Resources, you cannot use images from Adobe Stock or Colourbox. Images from Adobe Stock and Colourbox may not be released for redistribution by third parties.

      Many image databases with free images publish their materials under their own licence (e.g. Pixabay, Unsplash, or Pexels).

      Even if the licenses of these image databases, like CC0-licensed images, do not require attribution / naming of the authors, it is still advisable to indicate the origin and link to the original.

      • This way you can prove the origin of the material when you receive a warning.
      • You do not make the image material your own by passing it on under your own name.
      It is still not finally decided, if embedding materials infringes copyright law in Switzerland, see ccdigitallaw.ch, FAQ 2.2.8-2 (last checked on 28.4.2023).

      We therefore recommend that you do not embed copyright protected materials into your own sites.

      Good to know: Materials with a Creative Commons license may be embedded. In YouTube you can find the information on the license under the video under "more". You can filter for Creative Commons licensed videos in the results list in YouTube.

      According to CopA Art. 2, Swiss copyright law protects only intellectual creations (by persons). Content generated solely by AI is not protected by copyright. However, the material may have some overlap with existing copyright protected materials with which the AI tool has been trained. Also, the tools' terms and conditions may state that the content may not be shared publicly.

      • If possible, ask the AI to state the sources. Check whether and how closely the content is modeled on human intellectual creations, which themselves may be copyrighted.
      • Check whether the tool's terms and conditions prohibit public sharing.
      • Indicate the provenance by including the name of the AI tool, the date, and your prompt/ request.
        For example: image created with DALL-E on 4/28/2023 with the command "Forest on a concrete market square".
      The information is based on the article "KI und OER: Wie gut passen sie zusammen?" by Georg Fischer, iRights.info for OERinfo (19. April 2023) under CC BY 4.0 (in German).

      Only the work is protected by copyright, not the idea. You may therefore make your own images that are inspired by other works.

      It is important though, that your work is not a pure copy, i.e. that the original is not directly recognizable in the new work. Better put away the original and create the model or image anew from your own imagination and use your creativity.

      Where there is little room for originality (for example, in an anatomical drawing), it is quicker to assume that you have moved sufficiently far from the original image. However, anything like just changing the color is usually not enough.

      In a scientific context, it is necessary to name the original source, e.g.: Own work based on XY (year) and the full details of the source in the reference list.

      It is also possible to cite images, provided that they serve to illustrate and explain your own statement (see above). In this case, you would not have to reproduce the image, but could use the original image directly.

      Steinhau from irights.info writes in his blog post "Die Verwendung von Marken in (freien) Bildungsmedien", (German) that logos and brands underly the trademark law, and are usually not under copyright protection. Logos may be depicted (even in openly licensed material) if you don't give the impression that the trademark owners issued or initiated the material.

      Add a disclaimer when using logos or depicting trademarks, as indicated in the Information sheet on CC licences and publishing open educational resources (OER) at the ZHAW. This also applies to the use of the trademark and logo of ZHAW.

      Source: Steinhau, Henry (2019). Die Verwendung von Marken in (freien) Bildungsmedien, retrievved on April 28, 2023, under CC BY 4.0.

      Usually, you would quote data, tables, graphs or diagrams by discussing them in your work and referring to them directly. This is allowed according to the citation law (see above).

      If you do not cite, the following applies:

      • Numerical data are not protected by copyright. Only the way of visualizing e.g. a table, a diagram, etc. can be considered an intellectual creation if it has an individual character. Graphs or diagrams created automatically by software, which do not show a special level of creation in the design by a human being, are not subject to copyright.
      • If in doubt, create your own table with the data in question or generate your own graphs or charts from the data.
      • In a scientific context, it is necessary to refer to the original source, e.g.: Own work based on XY (year) and naming the full source in the reference list.


      Good to know:       Data, too, can be published under open licenses such as the Creative Commons - or in publications that are under such a license. Check this and use the data in accordance with the license.


      Websites are protected by copyright if they have a certain level of individuality, e.g. if special creative elements such as images and designs are used. In that case, it is not allowed to publish a copy of the website / a screenshot.

      However, Steinhau (2020) states that user interfaces of operating systems and apps contain many design elements, such as navigation bars, icons, pictograms, emoticons, etc. According to Steinhau (2020) small-scale graphic designs and pictographic elements of user interfaces are usually not subject to copyright protection. That means screenshots of such user interfaces, along with their icons, navigation, and functional elements, can be used for publication.

      When in doubt:

      • As with all copyrighted works, you have the right to cite screenshots and to use them for personal use and in classroom settings (see above).
      • Pay special attention to images of people, which are under protection beyond copyright. Cut them out of the screenshot, when making it available to a broader audience.
      • In some cases, entire pages are under a Creative Commons license, e.g. Wikipedia or various blogs. The license information can usually be found at the bottom of the page. Examples: Wikipedia, website "Code4You", blog "Open Ed"
      • Alternatively, you can obtain a written consent from website owners. Describe the use of the screenshots as precisely as possible and keep the consent for evidence.

      Steinhau, Henry (2020). Screenshots richtig nutzen, retrieved on 28 April 2023, under CC BY 4.0 (in German).


      In the case of map providers such as Google Maps, it is argued that the necessary degree of originality is achieved through the elaborate processing - and thus online maps are usually copyright-protected.

      An alternative to commercial portals is Open Street Map, which is offered under an Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL) v1.0 (retrieved 4/28/2023).

      For mere outlines of a country or continent, it can be assumed that there is no level of originality and that these are not protected by copyright.

      With satellite images, the decisive factor is whether they are triggered automatically by the device (not protected by copyright, since it is not the work of a human being) or whether a human being controls and triggers the recording (then it would be protected, analog to any photograph). In general, this cannot be recognized from the images.
      However, NASA and other publicly funded institutions make some of their materials available for public distribution and use (see: NASA Media Usage Guidelines).


Copyright in Moodle courses