Legal Hints — Use of Copyrighted Material

Have you also made the experience, that you wanted to use texts or images from a book or a webpage for your teachings, but you don't know, whether this copyrighted material can be used in your classes? Or how you could protect your own work from being copied?

On this page we've gathered some information about the use of copyrighted material and hope, that you will find some legal hints, that you can apply for your own situation. Please note that the information on this page is not legally binding, but is for information only. 

DICE: Digital Copyrights for E-learning

DICE is a SWITCH AAA project lead by the Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana (SUPSI), ETH Zürich (ETHZ) and Université de Genève (UNIGE). DICE aims at providing support to teaching and non-teaching staff of Swiss higher education institutions in copyright management of digital content for eLearning. The goal of DICE is:

• Increase awareness of copyright issues related with digital content, in order to provide sound knowledge and eliminate unreasonable fears.
• Develop fundamental skills in intellectual property and copyright management for higher education staff (e.g. understanding basic rules applicable in Switzerland, using Creative Commons licenses, etc.).
• Increase the readiness and ability of authors for publishing open access resources (aka Open Educational Resources).

DICE Website
DICE handbooks & workshops

LearnTechNet, University of Basel (UNIBAS)

• "Dokumentationen und Links zu rechtlichen Aspekten des Lehrens und Lernens mit Neuen Medien" (in German only)

Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)

• Information leaflet on copyright (in German only)

Interview with suissimage: Digitizing Pages from Text Books

By Hansjörg Lauener from the iLUB, University of Berne (UNIBE) with Barbara Baumann from suissimage

Go to interview

Additional Information

Information leaflet "GT 7" (PDF) of suissimage in German, French and Italian:

• Schulische Nutzung  (Kopieren auf Leerträger sowie Musikaufführungen)
• Utilisation scolaire (copie sur supports vierges et exécutions musicales)
• Uso didattico (riproduzione su supporti vergini e concerti)