Sharing copyrighted material with students
Most material you use in class are copyrighted. These include journal articles, books, images and sheet music. Read how to share this material with your students without infringing copyright on this page.
Do you infringe copyright? If so, your faculty may be fined.
Sharing copyrighted material
Below you will find several ways of sharing material with your students, ordered by type of material. Always try the first option first and move on to the next if this does not work.
For all sharing options and types of material: always mention the source. Even if you share a link to the material.
Easy Access agreement
The makes it possible to share material with students, for which no link is available or for which there is no agreement with the publisher. For this, UU pays a fee to the publishers through the UvO Foundation. The agreement is made between and publishers, represented by Stichting UvO (Publishers' Organisation for Educational Licences).
Please note: this agreement does not apply to Continuing Education (Onderwijs voor Professionals).
Copyright check tool for Easy Access agreement
From September 2025, material uploaded in Brightspace will be scanned with the CopyrightCheck tool. This tool checks whether the material complies with the agreements of the Easy Access agreement. If not, you will be notified by your faculty.
Want to know more about the CopyrightCheck tool? .
Sharing open educational resources
Open teaching materials are, similar to open access publications, available for all and may be used free of charge. Is the teaching material you want to share openly available? Please read how to share open educational resources with your students.