Each year, the Open Polytechnic Library subscribes to thousands of electronic journals, ebooks, and articles databases for a substantial cost. The legal contracts which the Library signs for each of these resources stipulate how and by whom they may be used.

All Open Polytechnic and Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand staff and students should know that their use can be monitored by publishers and the Open Polytechnic. If publishers suspect their license has been breached by anyone inside or outside the Polytechnic, they have the right to suspend all Polytechnic access to the resource in question. License violations traced back to specific users may result in the suspension of individuals accounts. 

Although licences vary from resource to resource, the following rules provide a summary of responsible use. It is important that you adhere to them.

In general,

• It is legal to download and save and/or print limited portions of content; for example, one or two articles from a journal issue, or one chapter of an ebook, for personal use
• It is legal to share content with other Open Polytechnic or Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand students, staff, and researcher via the distribution of article URLs
• It is legal to use content for Open Polytechnic or Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand related assignments, research, or instruction
• It is legal to include links to content from secure teaching environments such as Online Campus or Pou Manawa Akoranga

In general,

• It is illegal to share your Open Polytechnic or Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand username and password with anyone
• It is illegal to post content to any non-secure public space usch as a web site or blog
• It is illegal to use content for commercial purposes, or for the benefit of any party external to the Open Polytechnic or Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand
• It is illegal to distribute content to anyone who is not affiliated with the Open Polytechnic or Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand, including non-Open Polytechnic or Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand employers
• It is illegal to use content without citing the source
• It is illegal to remove or obscure copyright notices
• It is illegal to make mass, automated, or systemic copies of content for electronic or hard copy distribution or storage
• It is illegal to modify content or create deriavative works (mashups)
• It is illegal to reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, modify, translate the source code, or create derivative works

Revised: 5/1/15