The purpose of the Rhythmic Movement Training International Pty Ltd (RMTi) Copyright policy is to ensure that all Instructors teaching under the auspices of RMTi are complying with copyright law and with our copyright rules and procedures.
Instructors providing officially recognized RMTi training courses, must use the training manuals supplied by RMTi or an agent of RMTi. The training manual texts, content and services in all of the RMTi courses are either owned by RMTi or RMTi has agreements with the owners of the content. All of the information, content and services (collectively, the "Content ") within our learning activities are protected by copyright.
At RMTi we require each instructor to read and agree to the rules and procedures relating to copyright compliance when using copyrighted materials for educational purposes.
The RMTi copyright policy provides a brief summary of general copyright laws, as they relate to the use of others' copyright-protected materials, including published materials, and provides standard procedures for obtaining copyright permission when using copyrighted materials during training activities.
It is our policy that any use by an Instructor of copyrighted materials not within the defined Content of an RMTi learning activity requires either:
1. permission from the owner, or 2. designation as “fair use” for educational purposesIn either case, we require that the Instructor give Learners the proper acknowledgement of and credit to the copyright owner either verbally or in writing, or displayed electronically, for example in a Power Point presentation.
What is copyright?
Copyright is an area of law that provides creators and distributors of creative works with an incentive to share their works by granting them the right to be compensated when others use those works in certain ways. If you are not a copyright holder for a particular work, as determined by the law, you must ordinarily obtain copyright permission prior to reusing or reproducing that work or a portion of that work.
What is protected by copyright?
The rights granted by the Copyright Act are intended to benefit "authors" of "original works of authorship", including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural and audiovisual creations. This means that virtually any creative work that you may come across—including books, magazines, journals, newsletters, maps, charts, photographs, graphic materials, and other printed materials; unpublished materials, such as analysts' and consultants' reports; and non-print materials, including electronic content, computer programs and other software, sound recordings, motion pictures, video files, sculptures, and other artistic works—is almost certainly protected by copyright. Among the exclusive rights granted to those "authors" are the rights to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform and publicly display their works.
These rights provide copyright holders control over the use of their creations and an ability to benefit, monetarily and otherwise, from the use of their works. Copyright also protects the right to "make a derivative work," such as a movie from a book; the right to include a work in a collective work, such as publishing an article in a book or journal; and the rights of attribution and integrity for "authors" of certain works of visual art. Copyright law does not protect ideas, data or facts.
What is NOT Protected by Copyright?
Not everything is protected by copyright. This includes: works that are not fixed; titles, names, slogans; ideas, facts and data; listings of ingredients or contents; natural or self-evident facts; and public domain works (more on this below). Some of these things may, however, be protected under other areas of law, such as patent or trademark law, or by contract. It is important to be sure that no other form of protection restricts the use of such materials before using them.
Copyright and Digital Works
Any non-digital content that is protected by copyright is also protected in a digital form. For example, print books are protected by copyright law, as are electronic books. A print letter is protected by copyright law, as is an e-mail letter. In both cases, the copyright is generally owned by the author, regardless of who has received the letter. Whenever you wish to use material found on a website, it is always important to review and understand the terms of use for that site because those terms will tell you what use, if any, you can make of the materials you find there. When obtaining permission to use works on the Web (such as a posting on a website or webinar), always attempt to obtain worldwide rights, as most Web uses of content are on a global basis.
Fair Use
A reproduction of someone else's copyright-protected work is likely to be considered fair use if it is used for one of the following purposes: criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. If the reproduction is for one of these purposes, a determination as to whether the reproduction is fair use must be made based upon four factors:
1. The purpose and character of use (principally, whether for commercial, nonprofit or educational use); 2. The nature of the copyright-protected work; 3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used; and 4. The effect of the use being evaluated upon the potential market for or value of the copyright-protected work.Fair use is an ambiguous concept, and most laws do not state exactly what uses of a copyrighted work will be considered fair uses under the law and may therefore be used without obtaining permission. As such, individuals who are not lawyers may often need to be interpreters of the law in everyday circumstances, and answers as to how much reproduction may be considered fair use often remain unclear. The bottom line is that fair use requires a very circumstance-specific analysis as to whether a particular use or reuse of a work may indeed be considered fair use. For the purpose of clarity and consistency at RMTi we interpret the following situations as fair use:
1. Quotation of short passages in a work for illustration or clarification of the Instructor's teaching. 2. Reproduction of material for training use where the reproduction is unexpected and spontaneous – for example, where an article in the morning's paper is directly relevant to the training content. This would generally cover one time use in an individual training. 3. A summary of an address or article, which may include quotations of short passages of the copyright-protected work. In any of the above examples of fair use or similar instances, credit must be given, either verbally or in writing, to the author(s) of the original work.If an Instructor’s use does not meet the above criteria, then the work is likely protected by copyright. If so, the Instructor must follow RMTi policy and obtain copyright permission from the copyright holder or its agent. Whenever there is a question about fair use or in cases where explicit permission has not been granted, then Instructors must forego using the material in question.
How to obtain copyright permission
Permission to use copyright-protected materials, when required, should be obtained prior to using those materials from the publisher, agent or owner of the copyrighted work. It is best to obtain permission in writing (including e-mail) and to ensure that a copy of each permission letter or email is placed in both hardcopy and electronic files pertaining to the specific course in which the materials were used.