Legal hints

Do you want 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 have 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 for information only.

CCdigitallaw.ch – Competence Center in Digital Law

"Is it allowed to digitise an artistic photo without the consent of the author?", "Can a university put photographs in which students are recognisable on its website?", "What is a publishing contract?", "I have received a warning from a lawyer because I used a picture on my website. What can I do?" 

If you are working for a Swiss Higher Education Institution and already came across questions like these, CCdigitallaw.ch is the right place for you:

• Search for answers to your questions in the FAQs.
• Deepen your knowledge on Swiss copyright in the basics of copyright.
• Practice what you have learned with interactive case studies.
• If you still have questions, contact the experts of CCdigitallaw.ch and participate at the training activities proposed by the centre.

DICE: Digital Copyrights for E-learning

DICE is a SWITCH AAA project lead by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE).

DICE aims at providing support to teaching and non-teaching staff of Swiss Higher Education Institutions in copyright management of digital content for e-learning.

• DICE website
• DICE handbooks and workshops

Goals of DICE

• 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 (i.e. Open Educational Resources).

Data protection

• Technische Universität München: https://www.datenschutz.tum.de/leitlinien/hinweise-fuer-pruefungsverwaltende-stellen/
• Cloud-Dienste in der Lehre, ZHAW: https://blog.zhaw.ch/lehren-und-lernen/cloud-dienste-in-der-lehre-part-ii/

 Teaching and learning

• 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): Merkblatt von E-Learning ZHAW zur Verwendung von Copyright-geschütztem Material für Lehrzwecke an der ZHAW (in German only)

General information about digital copyright

• iRights law/lab/info: Urheberrecht und kreatives Schaffen in der digitalen Welt
• suissimage: Swiss Authors' Rights Cooperative for Audiovisual Works