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.
