Using copyrighted material

How can I use copyrighted material?

What use you can make of other people’s work depends upon its copyright status.

• If a work is in the public domain, you are free to reproduce, distribute and adapt it. Thus for instance you can freely reproduce the text of a Shakespeare play. However, the specific layout of a work may still be under the publisher’s copyright, so you can’t necessarily reproduce that. In all cases, you should make sure to cite work correctly and give appropriate credit.
• Some material is made available under a copyright licence. Holders of this licence are given the right to copy or broadcast a certain amount of a copyrighted work which they own a copy of, but they must not go beyond the bounds of what the licence allows.  Ulster University holds a CLA copyright licence and an ERA copyright licence. The former allows staff and students to scan and photocopy from books the library owns which are under the CLA licence; the latter allows us to broadcast TV and film recordings for educational purposes only. These licences are the main way we make use of copyrighted work and more details about how they work can be found here.
• There are a number of limited exceptions to copyright law, which permit people to make use of copyrighted works without permission from the holder. Several of these apply to teaching and research.

Some copyrighted material may be utilised by receiving permission from the copyright holder. There are two main ways that this can happen.

Open license

The first is if the copyright holder makes the work available through an open licence, such as an Open Government Licence or a Creative Commons Licence.

These licences allow others to reproduce and sometimes to adapt the work but impose certain conditions on people wishing to do so.

This is sometimes known as open access.

Explicit permission

The second is if the copyright holder is contacted directly and gives explicit permission for the work to be utilised in the intended manner.

This can be a time-consuming process and we would ordinarily suggest that you only try this if it is not possible to make use of the work through a licence or a copyright exception.

Requesting permission

However, if you do need to request permission, you can find information about how to go about seeking permission.

Using Public Domain material

If a work was never subject to copyright or copyright protection has expired, it is said to be in the public domain. This means that you are free to adapt, reproduce, distribute or perform it. You should of course still cite it correctly in your work and credit the author or creator.

Note however that it is possible for a text to be out of copyright, but for a specific edition of it to remain in copyright. This is because a typographical arrangement is also subject to copyright protection. In this case you would be able to reproduce the text, but you would not be able to reproduce the layout of that specific edition.

Depending on the type of work, copyright protection lasts for the following durations:

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 Intellectual Property Office.

If it is not possible to determine who holds the copyright to a work, then this is known as an orphan work. Orphan works are not in the public domain and reproducing them without permission is an offence. However, it is possible to apply to the Intellectual Property Office for an Orphan Works licence, which will allow you to make use of the work. The Copyright Officer can assist you in applying for an Orphan Works licence.

Copyright Licences

A copyright licence allows the holder to copy or broadcast copyrighted material covered by the licence without having to seek specific permission, provided you stick to the limits prescribed by the licence.

Ulster University holds four different copyright licences. The two main ones are the CLA licence and the ERA licence. The CLA licence covers books and e-books owned by the Library, whilst the ERA licence covers material broadcasted on radio or TV. We also hold the NLA licence for extracts from newspapers and the PPL PRS licence for music.

The CLA licence

• Most books published by UK publishers are covered by the CLA licence and many published elsewhere are covered by reciprocal agreements between the CLA and its international partners. The CLA maintains a licence checking tool allowing you to determine if a given book is covered by the licence.
• The licence allows you to scan or photocopy up to 10% of a book or one chapter, whichever is greater.
• The licence now allows you to scan up to 10% of a journal issue or two articles, whichever is greater. Where a whole issue is devoted to a particular theme the entire issue may be copied. The CLA is currently producing guidelines on what constitutes a particular theme and this guidance will be updated to take account of this once it is made available.
• The Library’s Scanning Service can carry out scanning for academic staff intending to use the scan as part of their teaching. As part of this service, they will check that the work is covered by the CLA licence. Contact your subject librarian to arrange this.
• If you require more than 10% of a book or more than one chapter, it may be possible to purchase a Second Extract permission, which allows the copying of an additional 10% or an additional chapter. This can be arranged via the Scanning Service.
• If the Library does not own a copy of the item you want scanned or photocopied, the Document Delivery Service may be able to secure a Copyright Fee Paid copy from the British Library which can be scanned from. Contact your subject librarian to arrange this.

The ERA licence

• The ERA licence covers most free-to-air TV channels and many radio channels (including the BBC.) A full list of ERA member organisations is available on their website.
• The licence allows us to make recordings or copies of TV and radio programmes for educational use. It also allows access to on-demand services and podcasts produced by ERA members.
• Only students and employees of Ulster University are covered by our licence. If you wish to show broadcasts at events attended by members of the public, the rights to do this must be negotiated separately.
• The ERA licence underpins the Box of Broadcasts service.
• The licence does not cover films or broadcasts by non-member organisations, but it may be possible to show this for educational purposes using a copyright exception. Contact the Copyright Officer is you have questions about this.
• Students based outside the UK are not covered by the basic ERA licence. If you have students based outside the UK and wish to show them recorded broadcasts in your teaching, contact the Copyright Officer to discuss options.

The NLA licence

• The NLA licence is administered by the CLA and allows extracts from national and regional newspapers to be included in course materials, including by uploading copies to Blackboard.
• You can also link to articles produced by non-NLA members without infringing copyright and it may be possible to reproduce sections of such articles under copyright exceptions. Contact the Copyright Officer if you are unsure if your proposed use is permitted.

The PPL PRS licence

The PPL PRS licence governs the use of copyrighted music on campus (including live performances) and in teaching. It is administered by Campus Life and queries about it should be directed to them.

Copyright exceptions

Copyright law contains a number of exceptions, which allow users to reproduce copyrighted material without purchasing a licence or seeking permission from the copyright holder. Each of these exceptions is defined in law and has particular conditions attached to it, which affect when it can be used and to what extent.

Two common conditions are that the use of the copyrighted work must be fair dealing and that the user must give sufficient acknowledgement.

Fair dealing

Fair dealing is not to be confused with fair use, which is an American legal concept that does not exist in UK law. There is no statutory definition of what is and is not fair dealing, but certain guidelines can be drawn from case law. Key considerations include:

• Whether the copyrighted work was lawfully obtained – use of a publicly available report is much more likely to be fair dealing than using private works which were obtained unethically
• Whether the use of the copyrighted work affects the market for the original work – if the use is likely to cause the owner of the copyrighted work to lose revenue, then it is not likely to be fair dealing
• Whether the amount of the copyrighted work that was used was reasonable and proportionate – the more of a work that is used, the less likely it is to be fair dealing.

Sufficient acknowledgement

If you are making use of a copyright exception to use or reproduce somebody else’s work, you should give sufficient acknowledgement of their work, by acknowledging their authorship and the use that you have made of it. Ways to do this include citing the copyrighted work correctly, mentioning it in your methodology and labelling slides appropriately.

The following exceptions to copyright are likely to be of use in an academic context:

Non-commercial research and private study

This exception allows anybody studying to copy limited extracts of copyrighted works to facilitate research. Such copying must not have a financial impact on the copyright owner (in other words, it must not be enough to deny them a sale) and it must be fair dealing. This is often interpreted as meaning that you can copy up to 10% of a work, but this is not an absolute rule and any such copying is done at the copier’s own risk. In practice, most copying for research will be done using the university’s CLA licence rather than relying upon this exception.

Any work you reproduce must have sufficient acknowledgement of the author. If the purpose of the research is directly or indirectly commercial, this exception cannot be used.

Text and data mining for non-commercial research

You may copy data in order to carry out lexical analysis or other data mining activities. You must have ‘lawful access’ to the work that you are copying (meaning that if it is paywalled you or the university must have a subscription) and you cannot carry out data mining for commercial purposes without permission.

Criticism, review and reporting current events

You may reproduce any copyrighted work for the purposes of criticism, review or quotation, provided that it is fair dealing. This means that brief passages can be quoted without seeking permission, but this may not apply if you wished to quote e. g. a large proportion of a poem.

You may also reproduce copyrighted work in order to report current events, but this exception does not apply to photographs. This is to protect the rights of photographers to sell their photographs to newspapers. In all cases, sufficient acknowledgement should be given.

Teaching

Most use of copyrighted works for the purposes of teaching will be done under the university’s CLA and ERA licences. However, uses not covered by these licences may be covered by a copyright exception.

To qualify, the usage must be for the purposes of instruction (which includes answering student queries and setting examination questions); it must be fair dealing; and it must give sufficient acknowledgement (unless this is impractical.)

Accessibility

Educational establishments and charities are permitted to make, distribute and lend format-copies of copyrighted works in order to make them more accessible to disabled people. This can include:

• Making braille, audio or large-print copies of books and other written material for visually-impaired people
• Adding audio description to films or broadcasts for visually-impaired people
• Adding subtitles to film or broadcasts for deaf or hard-of-hearing people
• Making accessible copies of books and other written material for dyslexic people

This exception only applies when the following conditions are met:

• The work being copied is one that is lawfully accessed
• The copy is made by a disabled person or someone acting on their behalf
• The copy can only be made for the personal use of a disabled person
• The accessible copy must only change the copyrighted work to the extent that is necessary to make it accessible
• The making of the copy should be done on a non-profit basis, and no accessible version of the original work is commercially available.

The Library’s scanning service can assist with the production of accessible copies.

The exceptions listed above are the most likely to be of use in an academic context, but they are not the only ones. A full list of copyright exceptions is provided by the IPO

Open Licences and Open Access

Open Access refers to works where the copyright holder allows anybody to reproduce them, provided they abide by certain conditions. This is done through an open licence. The most common form of open licence is a Creative Commons licence. There are seven different Creative Commons licences, each of which has a different set of conditions associated with it. Creative Commons also provides a useful tool to help you decide which specific licence to use. Other forms of open licences you may encounter include the GNU General Public License and Open Government Licence (OGL).

Many funding bodies require that scholarly work produced thanks to their funding is published under a Creative Commons licence and the university encourages all academics, regardless of their funding, to consider making both their scholarly work and their underlying data available in open access formats. For advice on this and more information about open access, consult the Library’s Open Access Guide.

Seeking Copyright Permission

Seeking copyright permission can be a lengthy process, so before starting to do so you should check that your proposed use of the copyrighted work is not already covered by one of the university’s copyright licences or by a copyright exception. If you are unsure, you can seek advice on this from the Copyright Officer.

If you do need to seek permission, the first step is to trace the owner of the copyright. This will often be the creator of the work (such as an author) but may not always be – for example, they may have signed their copyright over to a publisher, or if they are no longer alive it may have been inherited by their heirs. The IPO has advice on how to trace a copyright owner.

Once you have established the owner of the copyright, you will be able to write to them to seek permission for your intended use. You will need to inform them:

• How much of their copyrighted material you wish to use
• What use you will be making of their material
• Where your work will be made available and under what circumstances
• Whether your intended use is educational, personal or commercial
• How they will be credited

The copyright owner may or may not give permission and they may or may not demand payment in return for permission. You will need to wait until permission has been given before using the copyrighted work.

A failure to reply cannot be taken as permission being given. You may need to contact the copyright owner several times to get a response and it is sensible to devise a back-up plan if you are not able to get permission.

Orphan work

If you cannot trace the copyright owner but the copyright protection has not expired, then it may be an Orphan Work.

This refers to a work whose owner cannot be found after a search process demonstrating due diligence. In this case, you may apply to the Intellectual Property Office for an Orphan Works Licence.

You must pay a fee and demonstrate that your search was carried out with due diligence.

If your application is approved, the licence will allow you to make use of the copyrighted work for a period of seven years, after which it will be necessary to renew the licence if you wish to continue using it.