Tag: Copyright

Test your knowledge of copyright exceptions and ‘fair dealing’

26 February 2024 /

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.

3. Licences

10 January 2022 /

Licences allow copyright owners to permit others to use the owned work. They can be exclusive, non-exclusive and open.

Licences should not be confused with the assignment of rights, where the copyright ownership is transferred from one entity to another.

The reuse of material has to fall within the terms allowed by the licence chosen by the copyright holder, apart from the following scenarios:

  1. As a user, you can justify the application of one of the copyright exceptions or
  2. The material is in the public domain and, hence, not subject to any licences.

Licenced material may be purchased through paid agreements (for example, through an institutional licence or contracts) or accessed for free if released to the public with an open licence or following an ad hoc permission granted by the copyright holder.

Look at the following categories to know more:

Can I use third-party-owned resources for teaching?
You might breach copyright law if you upload third-party-owned resources …
Which licences does the Coventry University Group manage centrally?
Downloaded and scanned materials such as book chapters and journal …

What are open licences?
A free or open licence is a licensing
agreement that allows individuals…

Back Home

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.

1. Copyright overview

10 January 2022 /

In this section, you will find information on copyright and the answers to common questions on the Law:

  1. What is Intellectual Property (IP)?
  2. Copying and creativity
  3. What is copyright?
  4. Copyright Law
  5. Exceptions in copyright
  6. What is copyrightable?
  7. Copyright advice
  8. University’s information and guidance

See Licences

Back Home

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 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.

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.

What are the Creative Commons licences?

9 December 2021 /

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 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?

Forward to Fair dealing and the reuse of Creative Commons licensed works

Back to Creative Commons licences

Back to Open licences

Back Home

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 /

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.

Copyright law needs to strike a delicate balance between protecting creative works and allowing the public to use them:

  • 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

Go to next Copyright Law

Go to previous Copying and creativity

Back Home

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 Intellectual Property (IP)?

9 December 2021 /

Intellectual Property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of human intelligence.

It empowers creators to restrict others from using their creative works. It includes copyright, patents and trademarks, which are all protected by specific laws:

  • Copyright is a legal right that grants the creator of original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution
  • Trademarks enable producers of goods and services to protect their reputation, and they safeguard the public by giving them a simple way to differentiate between similar products and services
  • Patents give inventors a time-limited monopoly on their inventions as an exclusive right to exploit them.
  • Design rights protect the visual appearance of an object or part of an object.
  • Other types of IP are trade secrets, publicity rights and moral rights

Go to next Copying and creativity

Back Home

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.

Coventry University’s information and guidance

9 December 2021 /

The following resources provide you with the University’s information and guidance:

Go to previous Copyright advice

Back Home

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.

Copyright advice

9 December 2021 /

The Glasgow Caledonian University UK Copyright Advisor is a tool that gives online information (but not legal advice) on copyright considerations on audio files, book chapters, computer codes, images, journal articles, maps and video files.

Go to next University’s information and guidance

Go to previous What is copyrightable?

Back Home

Number © Getty Images

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.

This website was created using Coventry.Domains, a service of the Coventry University Group. The information, views, opinions and discussion contained on this website are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Coventry University Group. For more information on privacy, cookies, takedown requests and more, visit our policies page.