Author: Erica Levi

What is copyright on text base material?

14 December 2021 /

Unpublished text usually belongs to the author(s), unless there is a different agreement governing the activities of the creator(s).

You need to verify the terms of your contracts and agreements to verify who owns the material you produce during your association with the University.

For example, Coventry University’s staff and students’ work usually belong to the University. Therefore, claiming ownership of such material would constitute a breach of contractual agreement with your employer.

Do not assume that you or your colleagues own the copyright of the material they create because their employer could own it.

Another factor for consideration is that once a publisher, including a website, reproduces text, the copyright’s ownership may change. For example, a publisher usually owns the copyright of the published version, which might be a book or a journal article.

In some cases, publishers will only own the published version, and the author will retain the copyright to the text, but this is under specific conditions (like embargoes and location of the material).

How much text can I copy?

How do I reference sources?

The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

How do I reference sources?

14 December 2021 /

Use the APA Referencing Style to reference correctly in line with Coventry University Group guidelines.

Some disciplines, like Law, will require other referencing styles.

Include official links to referenced resources, such as official articles, landing pages, or officially uploaded material. 

What about hyperlinks and copyright?

How do I link to e-published articles?

Why shouldn’t we link directly to PDFs?

How do I find a legal version of an e-publication?

Can I link to videos and films?

What about hyperlinks and copyright?

The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

Can I use third-party-owned resources for teaching?

14 December 2021 /

You might breach copyright law if you upload third-party-owned resources without permission.

UK copyright law allows some exceptions for teaching, but they apply only within the UK.

As a general point, in assessing whether your use of the work is permitted, you must consider if there is any financial impact on the copyright owner because of your use (for example, loss in sales).

Linking to known illegal copies of a resource is unlawful.

In any case, you must provide suitable acknowledgements to the original source.

Some course material is available through licences purchased by the university.

In particular, Coventry University Library is responsible for the following licences:

The inclusion of downloaded and scanned materials such as book chapters and journal articles is most likely to be subject to copyright restrictions.

You may use Locate, the library catalogue, to discover the library’s holdings and obtain permalinks, or use closed-course access for quick access to resources.

However, some materials (for example, British Standards and Digimap) have territorial restrictions – students connecting from abroad cannot gain access. Please check with the Subject Librarian for updated information, including the licences below. 

CLA licence

The University has a Higher Education Licence with the CLA (Copyright Licensing Agency) that covers most UK publications and some US and other international publishers. The CLA Licence allows you to copy and distribute limited amounts of material without requesting permission each time.

As the process is managed by the library, you need to contact your course’s Subject Librarian for more information on whether your re-use of material is covered under the licence. 

Educational Recording Agency (ERA) Licence

The university also subscribes to Box of Broadcasts (BoB), a service for UK universities that allows you to view and record TV or radio programmes on over 60 channels. Please check with the Subject Librarian for updated information on territorial restrictions.

The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

How do I acknowledge Free Art licensed material?

14 December 2021 /

Free Art Licence grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works without any changes. It needs to be acknowledged in the following way:

[author], “[title]”, [date of the work]. [where to find the originals]. Copyleft: This is a free work. You can copy, distribute, and modify it under the terms of the Free Art License http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en/

The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

How do I acknowledge Open Government licensed material?

14 December 2021 /

Open Government licensed material is released by the British government and licences to the public under certain conditions.

You must acknowledge the source of the information, including or linking to any attribution statement specified by the Information Provider(s) and, where possible, provide a link to the licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

If the Information Provider does not provide a specific attribution statement, you must use the following:

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0

If you are using information from several information providers and listing multiple attributions is not practical for your product or application, you may include a URI or hyperlink to a resource that contains the required attribution statements.

The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

What are open licences?

13 December 2021 /

A free or open licence is a licensing agreement that allows individuals to reuse another creator’s work. This use is granted by the copyright owner at the start.

Some of the most common licences are as follows:

Please note that works in the public domain are free to be used, but licences do not regulate them.

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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

What is the Free Art Licence?

13 December 2021 /

Free Art Licence grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works without any changes.

It is compatible with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) licence.

How do you reference Free Art licensed material?

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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

What is the Open Government Licence?

13 December 2021 /

The Open Government Licence for public sector information is a copyright licence for Crown Copyright works published by the UK government.

Other UK public sector bodies may apply it to their publications.

It was developed and is maintained by The National Archives. It is compatible with the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.

How do I acknowledge Open Government licensed material?

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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

What are Open Educational Resources?

13 December 2021 /

Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials that are shared at no cost with legal permissions for the public to freely use, share, and build upon the content (either in the public domain or under a CC licence permitting derivative works, such as CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, or CC BY-NC-SA.

Educational resources are open when providing the public with permission to engage in the 5R activities:

  1. Retain – permission to make, own and control copies of the content (download, duplicate, store and manage)
  2. Reuse – permission to use the content in many ways (class, study group, website and video)
  3. Revise – permission to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (translate into another language)
  4. Remix – permission to combine content with other material to create something new (mashup)
  5. Redistribute – permission to share the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others

The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

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