Quick Start Guide
This guide covers a variety of common activities you may want to carry out as a student or a staff member and sets out what you are able to do legally without infringing copyright and in what circumstances. The topics covered are not intended to be exhaustive. More detail can be found in other sections of the guidance and any queries not answered here can be addressed to the Copyright Officer.
Uploading an article or chapter to Blackboard
If a chapter or article is covered by the CLA licence and the university has lawful access to a copy of it, the article can be uploaded to Blackboard.
The easiest way to check this is to use the Library Scanning Service. Library staff will check that the requested item is covered by the CLA licence, obtain and scan a copy, add a cover sheet and notify you that the item is available. Note that this service can only be used for reading list materials being uploaded to Blackboard and cannot be used to obtain copies for other purposes.
It may be possible to upload material not covered by the CLA licence to Blackboard without infringing copyright, using the copyright exception allowing illustration for instruction. However, you must take care not to use more material than is necessary for instruction, so you may not be able to rely upon this exception for an entire article or chapter. If you are unsure, check with the Copyright Officer.
Scanning and photocopying articles for personal use
There is a copyright exception for research and private study which allows anybody engaged in non-commercial research or private study to make copies of copyrighted works.
However, these copies must only be for your own use, you cannot use this exception to distribute copies to others and your copying must not have a commercial purpose or have a negative financial impact on the copyright owner.
Uploading a video to Blackboard
Videos you create yourself without using anybody else’s copyrighted materials can be uploaded (or you can create them in Panopto.) Videos from Box of Broadcasts are covered by the university’s ERA licence and can be embedded or linked to from Blackboard.
For other videos, you will either require the permission of the creator, or your use will need to be covered by a copyright exception. If you are unsure whether your proposed use is covered, check with the Copyright Officer.
Linking to Youtube from Blackboard
This is legitimate only when the video you are linking to has been uploaded legally. Many videos on Youtube have been uploaded without the permission of the rights holder and so including them in your course violates their copyright. If the video has been uploaded with the permission of the rights holder, then you are free to link to it and to embed it in Blackboard courses. To ensure that the video you are using is legitimate, we recommend that you only link to videos uploaded by official channels (which can be identified by their verification tick next to the account name). If you wish to embed the video, use the embed code provided.
This tick next to a username indicates that the Youtube account is verified and can safely be linked to.
Using photographs found online in lecture slides
Several things need to be considered when deciding whether this is permitted. Firstly, you need to consider whether the photograph is covered by copyright. Most photographs (along with paintings and other artwork) are covered by copyright, which last for the life of the artist plus 70 years. However, images which simply attempt to closely replicate other images in the public domain (such as photographs of paintings that are themselves out of copyright) and do not contain artistic elements of their own (such as particular choices taken in terms of lighting or composition) cannot acquire copyright. In addition, some other photographs which would otherwise be covered by copyright have been released into the public domain by their creators and can be reproduced without infringement. Libraries of such images are freely available online. Two such libraries are Pixabay and Unsplash.
If the photograph is in the public domain or is available under an open licence, you can use it freely in your lecture slides and in Blackboard without infringing copyright (although you should still give credit where appropriate and abide by any licence terms.)
If the photograph is not in the public domain, you either need the permission of the rights holder (usually the creator) or your proposed use needs to be covered by a copyright exception. There are a number of exceptions that may apply, such as illustration for instruction, quotation or criticism and review (see the Exceptions section of this guidance for details.) However, you must ensure that your usage is fair dealing, which means it must not negatively affect the market for the original photograph. If you are unsure, seek advice from the Copyright Officer.
Including somebody else’s diagram in lecture slides
This will usually be possible by one of two routes. Images or figures taken from works covered by the university’s CLA licence can be reproduced under the terms of the licence. If the diagram is not from a work covered by the CLA licence, you will probably still be able to reproduce it under the copyright exception allowing illustration for instruction.
However, you should always give sufficient acknowledgement when you are using other people’s copyrighted work. This means you should make it clear who created the diagram and where the original can be found.
How much of a book or journal am I allowed to photocopy or scan?
For books covered by the university’s CLA licence, you are allowed to photocopy/scan one chapter, or 10% of the entire work, whichever is greater. If the footnotes for a chapter are not on the same page as the text, you are allowed to photocopy those too and they do not count towards the 10%.
For journals, you are allowed to photocopy/scan two articles from a single journal issue, or 10% of the entire issue, whichever is greater.
If the work is not covered by the CLA licence, there is a copyright exception allowing you to copy up to 5% of a book for educational use.
There are other copyright exceptions which will allow you to copy limited amounts of a work for other purposes, but there are no hard and fast figures on how much precisely you will be able to include. The amount you include must be considered ‘fair dealing’, which means you should not copy more than is strictly necessary for your purpose, nor should you include enough to reduce the market demand for the original work. If you are unsure about whether your proposed use is legitimate, contact the Copyright Officer.
How can I tell if a work is copyrighted?
The short answer is that if you aren’t sure, then it’s probably copyrighted. Any work which meets the requirements for copyright (being an original, creative work of a type covered by copyright) is automatically covered by copyright under UK law and doesn’t have to be registered.
However, you will often find that works include the © symbol, which is an active statement that the work has been copyrighted. On the other side of the equation, some work is deliberately released under open licences, such as Creative Commons licences or Open Government licences, which proactively grant users permission to reproduce their content under certain conditions.
Examples of different kinds of Creative Commons and Open Access logos.
Some work is also out of copyright because it was created long enough ago that copyright protection has expired and it is now in the public domain. To work out whether this is the case, see the question below.
The duration of copyright
Depending on the type of work, copyright protection lasts for the following durations:
Type of work | Copyright expires |
|---|---|
Written, dramatic, musical or artistic works | 70 years from the death of the author |
Sound and musical recordings | 70 years after publication |
Films | 70 years after the deaths of the director, screenplay author and composer |
Broadcasts | 50 years after initial broadcast |
Layouts of published written, dramatic or artistic works | 25 years after publication |
More information on the duration of copyright, including how to deal with unpublished works and rules for specific types of work, is available from the IPO.
Who owns the copyright in material I produce at work?
If your work is produced in the ordinary course of your employment (which includes most teaching materials) then copyright will normally be owned by the University, unless there is a contractual agreement otherwise.
You own the copyright in any work created in connection with your research and in any work you produce outside of work. You are free to sell or transfer your copyright to somebody else.
Protecting your work from copyright infringement
You may choose to add a © symbol to your work along with your name and the year of creation to indicate your copyright. This helps to make people aware the work is copyrighted and discourages infringement.
If you discover somebody has infringed your copyright, inform your publisher (if the work has been published) or the university Copyright Officer (if the work has not been published.) They will be able to advise you on next steps.
The consequences of infringing copyright
Infringing copyright is against the law and is also a breach of the university’s Copyright Policy, which you are obliged to abide by as part of your employment contract.
Being found to have infringed copyright may lead to reputational damage, financial penalties or disciplinary sanctions. Additionally, it may lead to publishers restricting the university’s access to resources and it will almost certainly create extra work for you as you will have to remove and replace infringing content from your teaching materials.
A journal has accepted my article for publication, but they want me to transfer the copyright to them. Is this normal?
Yes. With books the author usually retains the copyright, but many journals require the author to transfer the copyright in their articles to the journal as a condition of acceptance for publication. However, this does not stop you from depositing a copy of your article in the university’s institutional repository and you are encouraged to do because this is the best way of ensuring that your article is eligible for inclusion in the REF.
The Open Research team in the library can offer advice and support on all stages of the publication process.
A journal has accepted my article for publication and want me to choose which licence to publish under. What should I do?
Many publishers publish articles under several different licences, which are open to various degrees. The most restrictive licences are for paywalled articles, which are only available to those with access to a subscription.
Other, more open licences are Creative Commons licences. There are six different types of Creative Commons licences (CC BY; CC BY-SA; CC BY-NC; CC BY-ND; CC BY-NC-SA; and CC BY-NC-ND.) All of these licences allow others to republish your article elsewhere but require them to credit you as the author. Some of these licences impose additional conditions, such as preventing them being used for commercial purposes or from creating derivative versions of your article. Creative Commons produce a useful tool for helping you to choose the right licence.
We encourage the use of Creative Commons licences, but publishers often charge to apply such licences. If you are funded by a Research Council or a government body, it may be a condition of your funding that you publish under a Creative Commons licence.
More information about open access licences is available from the Open Research team in the library.
My query isn’t listed here. Who can I ask?
Contact the University Copyright Officer.