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Dealing with Copyright in Education

When you use, create or publish educational learning materials such as literature, images or videos, you often have to deal with copyright issues. The Support Center for Educational Resources and Copyright is available to answer questions from teachers and students regarding copyright issues. Find information on this page or contact our experts.

VU Amsterdam and copyright
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam pays an annual fee for the use of copyrighted material. This is agreed upon in the Easy Access agreement. This is an agreement between UNL (universities) and Stichting UvO (publishers). Keep in mind that the VU always pays for the use of materials via the Easy Access agreement, so it is good to be aware of the general rules of the agreement. If you are forced to use a large part of a source, e.g. a book or an article, the University Library can help you look for (and find) alternatives or help you purchase the material. 

LibGuide Dealing with Copyright in Education

In-depth information
Open educational resources

Find, use, create, share

More information

  • Three ways to use materials for free in your education 

    We briefly explain 3 ways how you can use educational materials free of charge. We therefore ask you to use these methods as much as possible. Please note that citation is always required. 

    1. Use links to the publication that are lawfully available on the internet as much as possible or use links to publications for which the University Library has a licence. 
    2. Make use of open educational resources or Open Access materials. Materials which are published Open Access or with a Creative Commons licence can be used free of charge in education and Canvas.
    3. Use VU Reading Lists. This Reading List Manager not only ensures that you can easily provide your teaching materials to students, but also that you do it in the right way.

    Various instructional videos are available about, among other things, the use of educational materials in Canvas.

  • Finding open alternatives

    The LibGuide Dealing with Copyright in Education is partly dedicated to open educational resources (OER). Here, you can find articles, videos and other material to be used free of charge. To find open educational resources in your field, you can also get in touch with the Subject Librarian of your faculty. 

    The University Library also supports the development of new open educational resources, such as textbooks, podcasts, knowledge clips and other learning material.

  • Easy Access regulation: maximum of 40 pages / 20% from a work

    If it is not possible to use a link to the work or to use an open alternative, it is possible to use copyrighted content under the conditions of the Easy Access regulation. The Easy Access regulation stipulates that higher education institutions may use a maximum of 40 pages from a work, without having to ask for permission. The condition is that this is no more than 20% of the entire work. Within this percentage we speak of so-called “short acquisitions” and/or “medium-term acquisitions”. All the use that falls within this has been bought off from the scheme and no additional amount has to be paid or permission to be arranged. 

    This infographic explains how it works.

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