Tag: Publication

How long does copyright last?

31 January 2022 / Erica Levi

The duration (length) of copyright is very complex. It depends on various factors, such as the type of work when it was created, whether it was published or unpublished, whether the author is identifiable and the geographical jurisdiction where the law applies.

Once your copyright has expired, a work falls in the public domain, and anyone can use or copy it. Any reproduction of work in the public domain may be freshly subject to copyright.

Since copyright law is territorial, one work may be in the public domain in one country but not another. In the UK, the copyright expires as follows:

Work type	Expiration
Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works	70 years after the death of the author
Film	70 years after the death of the last of the following persons: director; author of the screenplay; author of the dialogue (if different); composer of the music specially created for the film
Sound recording	50 years from the year in which the recording was made or, if published, 70 years from publication
Broadcasts	50 years from transmission
Typographical arrangements	25 years from publication

Summary

^{© The National Archive available from https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/non-crown-copyright-flowchart.pdf [accessed on 2 February 2022]}

^{© The National Archive available from https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/crown-copyright-flowchart.pdf [accessed on 2 February 2022]}

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 create an audio recording from a book?

27 January 2022 / Erica Levi

Creating audio from books is considered an adaptation; therefore, you would require permission unless you have a strong case that your use falls under fair dealing or one of the exceptions to copyright law.

For example, if students were to read a portion of a book for the final assessment on a voice or acting module, the recording would be limited to the exam and for marking with the sole purpose of graduating. It would be fair dealing—the initial recital and recording fall under the exception of Illustration for instruction (S.32).

Let’s stretch it a bit. Let’s say the lecturer would like students to read portions of various books that first years have to read and make available to freshers as audiobooks. The purpose here changes from just examination purposes; the tutor will make the recording available for future students to listen to so that future students can be inspired by listening to recent graduates read.

Performance of a work falls under the exception to copyright law – an audiobook is a performance that falls under the exception of Public reading and performance (s.59) therefore since the recording will be available to students for free, and the recording will be from different books (versus the entire content of a single book) there would not be any commercial gain. The recording will need to be accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement. The portion read should come from different books or, even better, from outside of the copyrighted text.

However, if the students were to recite different portions of the same book, which are then going to be stuck together to comprise the entire content of the book, whilst the assessment activity would still be acceptable, the final compiled product for the first years falls out of the fair dealing requirement of s.32 and the conditions of s.59 relating to “a reasonable extract”.

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.

Notes on accessing newspaper articles online

13 January 2022 / Erica Levi

Articles can generally be accessed on Locate when the library subscribes to the newspaper back issues.

Independent journalists write articles, but sometimes they are unavailable through subscriptions such as the library’s. It is possibly due to the contract independent journalists might have with that particular newspaper and the newspaper with that particular distributing platform (ProQuest).

It has happened that the newspaper makes the article available online for a while but then has to take it down for contractual reasons.

It might be an inconvenience, but that is how independent journalists earn their livings and maintain their clout.

If the article is part of an essential reading, you could try to seek permission from the journalist. Unfortunately, Coventry University doesn’t hold a Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) educational licence.

You may also try another avenue by asking a subject librarian if the article can be obtained through another licence, such as the CLA one.

Additionally, if a specific article previously openly available online is becoming fiddly to find, it is because it is in the process of being removed – search engines’ crawlers are still finding traces of it, but eventually, soon they will lose track – you might as well find an alternative resource to ensure longevity in the course (unless you obtain permission).

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 / 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.

How much text can I copy?

6 December 2021 / Erica Levi

In the UK, no statutory measure defines the quantity of text that can be copied. It has to be done so that a “fair-minded and honest person” would consider it just and that it is not used as an excuse to infringe copyright.

You may paraphrase text when appropriate, but remember to reference it correctly, using Coventry University Referencing Guidelines. Include official links to referenced resources, such as official articles, landing pages, or officially uploaded material.

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 link to e-published articles?

6 December 2021 / Erica Levi

At times, material usually available through subscription may appear available from other websites.

Sometimes, this is legitimate (for example, through institutional repositories and permitted subject repositories, such as PubMed and arXiv). However, at other times, it is in breach of copyright law: for example, some articles in ResearchGate and Academia.edu are sometimes available without the copyright owners’ permission.

A copyright owner is not necessary the author or creator

We recommend not linking to ResearchGate, Academia.edu and personal web pages.

Exercise care to ensure that the link resource is available legally. It is unlawful to purposely link to illegally hosted resources on the Internet.

We recommend that you include a complete reference using the APA Style reference, which mandates the inclusion of a hyperlinked Digital Object Identifier (DOI) (usually starting with https://doi.org/10…).

Such a link is a permalink that will bring users to articles’ landing pages on the publishers’ websites. Students will be able to access the full text according to these conditions:

The article was published in open access
The publisher has made the document accessible (though it could be subject to territorial and temporal restrictions)
The Lanchester Library must have a subscription to the resource (off-campus users may have to log in via OpenAthens or Shibboleth), without which the user will receive an error message or be prompted for payment.

Providing a permalink to resources through Locate following the correct reference details is possible.

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?

How do I reference sources?

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 upload a chapter or an article?

12 November 2021 / Erica Levi

Including downloaded and scanned materials such as book chapters and journal articles is most likely subject to copyright restrictions. The university has the CLA Licence that covers most UK publications and some US and other international publishers. The CLA Licence allows for copying and distributing limited amounts of material without requesting permission every time. Contact your Subject Librarian for more information on whether your re-use of material is covered under the licence.

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.