Tag: Copyright protection

Test your knowledge of copyright exceptions and ‘fair dealing’

26 February 2024 / Erica Levi

You usually need permission or a licence to use copyright-protected materials (e.g. text, images, video). However, for specific purposes in the UK, you may also be able to rely on ‘copyright exceptions’ as defined in UK legislation.

Disclaimer: This quiz is for educational purposes only, to help you understand copyright exceptions and direct you to further resources. Your answers will not be used for any purpose, and your personal data will not be collected.

With permission from Christina Daouti from UCL

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 a copyright infringement?

15 February 2022 / Erica Levi

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 [s.16(2) and (3)] states that

Copyright in a work is infringed by a person who, without the licence of the copyright owner, does, or authorises another to do, any of the acts restricted by the copyright.

It applies to the work as a whole or any substantial part of it.

What are the copyright exceptions in UK law?

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.

Authorship and ownership of copyright

7 February 2022 / Erica Levi

According to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the author of a work is the first person who creates it and usually is also the first owner of any copyright.

Type of work	Author
Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work	Author
Sound recording	Producer
Film	Producer and principal director
Broadcast	Person making the broadcast
Typographical arrangements of published material	Publisher

Some authors may have clauses in their contractual agreements that transfer copyright ownership. If an employee creates the work during employment, their employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work subject to any agreement to the contrary. Therefore, from the onset, one should make oneself aware of any clauses that may restrict one’s own rights on teh material created.

The standard contract of employment in most of the higher education establishments in the UK will include a clause that works created whilst carrying out employment duties belong to the institution.

Upon publication of work, some authors sign a transfer agreement form where they assign or transfer their copyright ownership to another person or entity, for example, a publisher.

What is copyright on text base material?

14 December 2021 / Erica Levi

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.

What are the elements of the Creative Commons?

10 December 2021 / Erica Levi

The following icons represent the four licence elements:

Attribution or “BY” indicates that the original creator needs to be acknowledged.
^{All of the CC licences include this condition.}

A graphic of a circle with a line through it followed by a C-shaped arrow pointing counter-clockwise inside a third circle

ShareAlike or “SA” indicates that adaptations based on this work must be licensed under the same licence.
^{Two of the CC licences include this condition.}

A graphic of a "$" inside a circle with a line through it.

NonCommercial or “NC” means that the work is only available to be used for non-commercial purposes.
^{Three of the CC licences include this restriction}^.

NoDerivatives or “ND” indicates that re-users cannot share work adaptations.
^{Two of the CC licences include this restriction.}

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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 the Creative Commons licences?

9 December 2021 / Erica Levi

Creative Commons (CC) licences are one of the public copyright licences that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted creation.

A CC licence is used when an author or copyright owner wants to give other people the right to share, use and build upon a work the author has created.

CC licences are built on copyright and are designed to give more options to creators
who want to share.

Why do we need CC licences?

The CC licences were created in response to an outdated global copyright legal system and to help address the tension between creators’ ability to share digital works globally and copyright regulation.

What is the CC licence scope?

CC licences are appropriate for creators to provide people with permissions governed by copyright from the onset.

They have the basic limitation of controlling what people do with the work the licences; hence, they apply only when the work is within the scope of copyright, which means that they do not apply when copyright doesn’t and when exceptions to copyright law do.

They warrant that there may be other not covered rights at play with the work that restrict how it is used (i.e., patents, trademarks, privacy and publicity rights) that must be managed separately.

Scenarios in which copyright does not apply and CC licences do not either:

Letting someone specifically read your article or watch your video is not regulated by copyright law.

When fair use, fair dealing or other limitation and exception to copyright applies.

When the work is in the public domain.

How do the Creative Commons licences work technically?

What are the elements of the Creative Commons?

What are the six Creative Commons licences?

How to you reference and acknowledge Creative Commons licensed works?

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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 copyright?

9 December 2021 / Erica Levi

Copyright is a legal right that grants the creator of original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution. It automatically grants all rights reserved to creators (no one else can copy, distribute, perform, adapt or otherwise use the work in violation of those exclusive rights).

Unlike other forms of IP, such as patents and trademarks, copyright protection exists automatically from the moment material is created. It does not have to be explicitly declared to be in effect.

Protection: a set of exclusive rights granted to authors to allow them to earn from their work and so incentivize them to produce new work
Dissemination: limits to the scope of exclusive rights to enable the spread of knowledge and dissemination of the works created through the copyright incentive

Creative Commons licences operate within copyright law, but they utilise a some rights reserved approach.

They grant the public permission to use the works under certain standardised conditions for as long as the underlying copyright lasts or until one violates the licence terms.

The licences were designed to be a free, voluntary solution for creators who want to grant the public up-front permissions to use their works.

See the following links:

What is the public domain?

What is copyrightable?

Economic and moral rights

Authorship and ownership of copyright

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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.

Exceptions in copyright

8 December 2021 / Erica Levi

In some parts of the world, copyright law has some limitations and allows some exceptions (for example, ‘fair use’ and ‘fair dealing’) to ensure that the rights of the public are not unduly restricted by copyright.

Thus, by offering exceptions to copyright, the Law permits certain very specific situations where you may be permitted limited use of copyright works without the copyright owner’s permission.

Exceptions and limitations to copyright vary by country, and they have territorial jurisdiction, meaning they apply only to that specific country.

In other words, since copyright law is unique to its jurisdiction, an exception could be valid in one country but not in others.

For more details, look at the Intellectual Property Office guide Exceptions to copyright: Education and Teaching.

See some more details of exceptions permitted by the UK in copyright law, with particular application to online teaching:

Fair dealing

Non-commercial research and private study exception

Criticism, review and reporting of current events

Teaching (in our case, specifically for online courses)

Helping disabled people

Parody, caricature and pastiche

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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.

Exception: parody, caricature and pastiche

8 December 2021 / Erica Levi

It is essential to understand that this exception only permits use for the purposes of caricature, parody, or pastiche to the extent that it is fair dealing. This must not be derogatory or cause commercial harm to the original.

Please see this article on a court case

Only Fools and Horses firm sues creators of ‘cushty’ dining events

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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.

Exception: helping disabled people

8 December 2021 / Erica Levi

There are two exceptions to copyright for the benefit of disabled people:

You, or someone acting on your behalf, make a copy of a lawfully obtained copyright work in a format that helps you access the material.
Educational establishments and charity organisations reproduce, communicate, make available, distribute and lend accessible format copies of protected works on behalf of disabled people. The exception permits acts such as:
- Making Braille, audio or large-print copies of books, newspapers or magazines for visually impaired people
- Adding audio descriptions to films or broadcasts for visually impaired people
- Making sub-titled films or broadcasts for deaf or hard-of-hearing people
- Making accessible copies of books, newspapers or magazines for dyslexic people.

However, the following requirements have to be met:

Accessible copies of copyright-protected works can be made only from lawfully-accessed copies
An accessible copy can only be made by a disabled person or an authorised body acting on their behalf
The copy can only be made for the personal use of a disabled person. Accessible copies cannot be made, communicated, made available, distributed or lent to a person who is not a disabled person under these exceptions
An accessible copy must only change a copyrighted work to the extent that is necessary to convert it to an accessible format
It must be done on a non-profit basis

Note: there is a discrepancy between accessibility regulations and copyright law, where the former doesn’t take precedent over the latter

Creating a transcript from a third-party-owned resource constitutes an adaptation, and it can only be done with the copyright holder’s permission.

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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.