To check if you can legally use materials, you can check if the creator of the work has attached a licence to the work that will allow you to use it under certain conditions, for example:
- a National Education Access Licence for Schools ( NEALS)
- a creative commons licence
- a copyleft licence.
You can check if the copyright in the work has expired. If it has, the work will be in the public domain and free to use.
See the Copyright Council’s information sheet on Duration of copyright (.pdf 248 kB) to find out when copyright in a particular work expires.