On the following pages you will find all our information on copyrights and licenses:
- FAQ Copyright, Sharing Materials
- Finding and Using (Free) Images
- Creative Commons Licenses
- Films in the Classroom, Legal Issues
Works created by people, i.e. texts, images, audio and video material, computer programs, etc., are protected by copyright in Switzerland. This means that authors may decide whether others may use their work and, if so, under what conditions. Copyright law consists of a whole range of rights that regulate various areas. Many of these rights can be transferred, for example to a publisher, who can then decide on publication and usage conditions. Various options for defining the terms of use are listed below:
- Creative Commons license: CC licenses allow works to be redistributed and reused as freely as possible under certain conditions. Authors must always be named. In addition, certain uses can be excluded, such as the modification of works or the commercial use by third parties.
- All rights reserved (in German): Intellectual creations are automatically protected under Swiss copyright law. This only allows distribution under limited conditions (as a citation, in an educational context, in a very limited private context, etc.). Copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author (50 years in the case of computer programs) and the works then belong to „the public domain“.
- „Public domain“ (in German): Copyrights have expired, the work may be reused / redistributed without restriction. A CC0 license is similar. With a CC0 license, authors waive all of their rights.
The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts is committed to providing open access to knowledge („Open Science„). This includes access to data, publications, teaching and learning materials and other publications. The HSLU has put into place various policies in order to achieve this. Unpublished patents and materials are not affected by the Open Science Policies.
As libraries of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, we stand for an open access to knowledge as a basis for democratic participation and encourage people to use and share materials if legally possible. We have set out our position and areas of responsibility in the Erklärung Informationskompetenz (in German)