For copyright, "Fair Dealing" exceptions only cover use of material if you don't use a "substantial amount" of the work. What counts as a "substantial" amount?
Fair dealing exceptions and statutory licences only allow people to copy a "fair" amount of a work, not a substantial part of it. This is to ensure that the part of the work that has been copied isn't injurious or prejudicial to the copyright holder. You cannot copy or distribute something that could be regarded as a "substantial" part of the work, regardless of the size of the amount being copied.
Legislation does not provide a definition for what constitutes a "substantial" amount when copying third-party content. However, court interpretations have generally gone with the amount being an “important, distinctive or essential part” (Australian Copyright Council, 2022, p. 2). Consequently, "substantial" could be surprisingly small depending on the context, e.g. a diagram, chords from a song riff.
We acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and acknowledge Traditional Owners of the lands where our staff and students, live, learn and work.
