For Libraries

If a Library permits self-service copying, users may make a ‘fair dealing’ copy of a “reasonable” proportion from a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, sound recording, film or broadcast for the “purposes of private study or research for a non-commercial purpose”. The following copying limits are often cited:

one article from any one issue of a journal or periodical
one chapter from a published book or extracts from a published book up to a maximum of 5% of the whole of the book
one article from an issue of a newspaper
one paper of one set of conference proceedings
one report of one case from a book of law reports
up to 5 per cent of an anthology of short stories or poems or one short story or one poem if not more than 10 pages
up to 10 per cent (if not more than 20 pages or 2 pages if brief) of a short book without chapters, report, pamphlet or standard
musical work, i.e. sheet music – a short excerpt for study purposes but not performance
map or atlas – an A4 extract from a map or atlas page

By law, such a copy may only be given to one other person for the purposes of private study or non-commercial research.

The basic rules are set out in the Copyright Fair Dealing Notice for Display, to be placed near Library photocopiers/scanners, often alongside the CLA Copyright Notice for Display 2019-22 for multiple copying of journal articles and book chapters for teaching purposes.

For further information, see:

"Are there any exceptions to copyright protection in law where copying and use of a copyright work is allowed without permission from, or payment to, the copyright owner/holder, i.e. without infringing copyright?" -

‘Fair dealing’ copying of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, sound recording or film for your own private study or non-commercial research

"What about the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) HE Licence for multiple copying of journal articles and book chapters for lecturers/instructors to provide to students by photocopy, or by email, or in Moodle? Rules? Procedure to follow?"

Library users may ask a Librarian or archivist to make and supply the user with a copy of one article in any one issue of a periodical, or a reasonable proportion of any other published work, or a single copy of the whole or part of an unpublished work, provided they agree and sign up to the terms of a user declaration wherein the requestor agrees to use the supplied copy only for private study and non-commercial research only, i.e. no sharing, no publication, no Internet/social media posting.

Supply of copies of published material to users, i.e. one article from any one issue of a periodical or a reasonable proportion of any other published work

Section 42A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 permits a librarian to make and supply one article in any one issue of a periodical, or a reasonable proportion of any other published work, i.e. for published literary works this is generally considered to be about 5% or one chapter, whichever is greater, without infringing copyright in the work, if the following conditions are met:

the copy is supplied in response to a request from a person who has provided the librarian with a ‘user declaration’ in writing (which may be by email), which includes the information set out below, and which is received before the copy is made
the librarian is not aware that the declaration is false in a material particular, i.e. if the librarian knows that the declaration is dishonest the copy must not be made

The user declaration must state:

the name of the person who requests the copy and details of the material required;
a statement that the person has not previously been supplied with a copy of the same material by any library or archive;
a statement that the person requires the copy for the purposes of research for a non-commercial purpose or private study, will use it only for those purposes and will not supply the copy to any other person; and
a statement that to the best of the person’s knowledge, no other person with whom the person works or studies has made, or intends to make, at or about the same time as the user’s request, a request for substantially the same material for substantially the same purpose.

Where the requestor makes a declaration under this section that is false in a material particular and is supplied with a copy which would have been an infringing copy if made by the requestor, the requestor is liable for infringement of copyright as if the requestor had made the copy, and the copy supplied to the requestor is to be treated as an infringing copy for all purposes.

Any contract term that purports to prevent or restrict the operation of this exception is unenforceable.

There is no longer a statutory form of declaration for users requesting a copy, but a declaration in writing must still be received, which may be sent electronically. A model copyright form and guidance is provided by the by the UK Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA):

FORM A DECLARATION: COPY OF ARTICLE OR PART OF PUBLISHED WORK

Librarians and archivists are reminded that this is a UK statutory provision, so they are under no obligation to supply copies outside the UK. However, if they take the decision to supply copies to requestors outside the UK they are urged to keep in mind the difficulties that may arise in enforcing declaration terms and dealing with unauthorised copying and other abuses of supplied copies in other jurisdictions.

Any fee charged for supplying a copy under this section may cover only the cost of making the copy or may be waived.

Due to long copyright periods and the opportunity for infringement possible at any time a work remains in copyright, Librarians are advised to keep copies of received declarations in perpetuity:

Registrary’s Office, Statement of Records Management Practice and Master Records Retention Schedule, Section 10 Libraries, 10.3.4 Copyright declarations.

Supply of copies of unpublished material to users, i.e. a single copy of the whole or part of an unpublished work, provided that copyright owner has not prohibited the copying of the work

Section 43 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 permits a librarian or archivist to make and supply a single copy of the whole or part of an unpublished work made without infringing copyright in the work, if the following conditions are met:

the copy is supplied in response to a request from a person who has provided the librarian or archivist with a declaration in writing (which may be by email), which includes the information set out below, and which is received before the copy is made
the librarian or archivist is not aware that the declaration is false in a material particular, i.e. if the librarian or archivist knows that the declaration is dishonest the copy must not be made.

The user declaration must state:

the name of the person who requires the copy and details of the material required
a statement that the person has not previously been supplied with a copy of the same material by any library or archive
a statement that the person requires the copy for the purposes of research for a non-commercial purpose or private study, will use it only for those purposes and will not supply the copy to any other person
a statement that to the best of the person’s knowledge, the work had not been published before the document was deposited in the library or archive and the copyright owner has not prohibited copying of the work.

Where the requestor makes a declaration under this section that is false in a material particular and is supplied with a copy which would have been an infringing copy if made by the requestor, the requestor is liable for infringement of copyright as if the requestor had made the copy, and the copy supplied to the requestor is to be treated as an infringing copy for all purposes.

Any contract term that purports to prevent or restrict the operation of this exception is unenforceable.

There is no longer a statutory form of declaration for users requesting a copy, but a declaration in writing must still be received, which may be sent electronically. A model copyright form and guidance is provided by the by the UK Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA):

FORM B DECLARATION: COPY OF ARTICLE OR PART OF UNPUBLISHED WORK

Librarians and archivists are reminded that this is a UK statutory provision, so they are under no obligation to supply copies outside the UK. However, if they take the decision to supply copies to requestors outside the UK they are urged to keep in mind the difficulties that may arise in enforcing declaration terms and dealing with unauthorised copying and other abuses of supplied copies in other jurisdictions.

Any fee charged for supplying a copy under this section may cover only the cost of making the copy or may be waived.

Due to long copyright periods and the opportunity for infringement possible at any time a work remains in copyright, Librarians are advised to keep copies of received declarations in perpetuity:

Registrary’s Office, Statement of Records Management Practice and Master Records Retention Schedule, Section 10 Libraries, 10.3.4 Copyright declarations.

The University holds a Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) UUK/GuildHE Higher Education licence, which enables University staff to copy journal articles and book chapters (including still images) for teaching purposes, subject to terms and conditions. The Licence covers photocopying, scanning and digital re-use.

The CLA HE Licence and supporting documentation can be found at: https://www.cla.co.uk/higher-education-licence-docs

It's important to ensure that action is taken on the following points to comply with the terms of the Licence:

1) PHOTOCOPYING

Ensure that an up-to-date CLA HE Copyright Notice for Display is displayed near any photocopiers or scanners which may be used for copying for teaching purposes.

Whilst the CLA Licence covers copying for University of Cambridge teaching purposes, copying for private study and non-commercial research is done under the exception in UK copyright law for "fair dealing". This is detailed in a separate Copyright Fair Dealing Notice for Display. In most Libraries and Departments, it will be necessary to display BOTH notices.

2) MAKING DIGITAL COPIES (SCANS FROM PRINT MATERIALS AND EXTRACTS COPIED FROM DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS)

Under the CLA HE Licence, Digital Copies may be made available to course users for teaching purposes via a secure password-protected network (e.g. Moodle). Course Users means students taking a particular course plus any staff teaching it.

Please ensure that all Digital Copies made available to Course Users have a CLA HE Licence Notice attached with all details filled in.

Any Digital Copies made available to Course Users are subject to cyclical reporting. If you are involved in making and sharing digital copies for teaching purposes and are not already a member of the CLA Reporters Moodle site please get in touch at: copyright-help@lib.cam.ac.uk.

3) FURTHER GUIDANCE

The CLA HE Licence User Guidelines can be found at:

www.cla.co.uk/sites/default/files/CLA-HE-User-Guidelines.pdf

Please be aware that:

Only students on the Course of Study for which the digital copies are provided are allowed to access and download those materials.
Study and research groups are not permitted to scan and upload materials under the CLA Licence.
Materials not allowed for copying under the CLA Licence include printed music and lyrics, maps, charts and newspapers.
Digital Copies should not substitute for the purchase of an original published edition, i.e. text substitution (either print or electronic).
Digital Copies should not be stored, or systematically indexed, with the intention of creating an e-library.
Digital Copies must not be made available on the publicly accessed Internet.

If you have any questions regarding the Copyright Notices for Display or Copyright Notice coversheets for Digital Copies or the procedure that follows, please contact the Copyright Helpdesk Team at: copyright-help@lib.cam.ac.uk

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If you wish to provide a journal article or extract from a book to your students by email or in Moodle or another restricted intranet at the University, please follow these steps:

Check iDiscover to see if the University or a College Library owns the ‘source edition’ from which the item is to be scanned.

If not, the item may not be made available for distribution unless a copyright fee-paid copy of the chapter or article is obtained from an organisation that holds a document delivery licence with the CLA, e.g. British Library Document Supply Service.
Check to see whether the particular work is part of the CLA Repertoire and may be scanned and distributed by using the CLA Check Permissions search tool.
If the conditions in 1 and 2 are met, the proportion of a book, journal or magazine that may be scanned or copied for each Course of Study is restricted to whichever is the greater of:

up to 10% or one chapter of a book (no chapter substitution from the same book or other edition of the same book during the Course of Study
up to 10% or two articles of a journal issue (or, except for any CCC Electronic-Rights Works, where the issue is dedicated to a particular theme, any number of articles dealing with that particular theme)
up to 10% or one paper of one set of conference proceedings
up to 10% or one report of one case from a book of law reports
up to 10% of an anthology of short stories or poems or one short story or one poem of not more than 10 pages

Attach a CLA HE Licence Copyright Notice CLA HE Licence Copyright Notice

The covering Copyright Notice should have details filled in about the Course of Study and the source copy being provided.

If distributing the same materials to two separate courses, attach separate Copyright Notices to each scan. The Copyright Notice should state which Course of Study the material has been released to.
Report all this to the CLA Designated Person in the Faculty, Department, etc., often at its Library, who will enter the Digital Copy information on a prescribed CLA Digital Copy Record Form (who will send it to the University’s CLA Licensing Co-ordinator for compilation and submission to the CLA).

Should you not know who is your Faculty’s or Department’s Designated Person, contact the University’s CLA Licensing Co-ordinator at copyright-help@lib.cam.ac.uk
Now the PDFs may be distributed by email to the students or to the Moodle site or other restricted intranet site limited to the students on the Course of Study for which the digital copies are being provided.

Accessible copies of a copyright work for a disabled person

First, quick definitions

A “disabled person” is defined in UK copyright legislation as a person who has a physical or mental impairment which prevents the person from enjoying a copyright work to the same degree as a person who does not have that impairment. A person is not to be regarded as disabled by reason only of an impairment of visual function which can be improved by the use of corrective lenses to a level that is normally acceptable for reading without a special level or kind of light.

An “accessible copy” of a copyright work means a version, by copy or adaptation, which enables the fuller enjoyment of the work by disabled persons. It may include facilities for navigating around the version of the work, but must not include any changes to the work which are not necessary to overcome the problems suffered by the disabled persons for whom the accessible copy is intended.

Examples of accessible copies:

the making of braille, large print or audio versions of books, newspapers or magazines
adding audio-description to films or broadcasts for visually impaired people
making sub-titled films or broadcasts for deaf of hard of hearing people
works prepared for text reading software
works produced in particular fonts that are easier to read.

There are two copyright exceptions for disability support in UK copyright legislation:

1. A disabled person, or someone acting on their behalf, may make an accessible copy of a copyright protected work of any type whether published or unpublished, even if an accessible copy can be obtained commercially, provided the following conditions are met:

the disabled person already owns or has lawful access of a copy of the whole or part of the work, e.g. as a library “authorised user”
the disabled person’s disability prevents them from enjoying the work to the same degree as a person who does not have that disability
the accessible copy is made for the disabled person’s personal use.

If these conditions are not satisfied, making an accessible copy will likely be considered an infringement of copyright, and the subsequent copy an infringing copy.

2. A Library at an ‘educational establishment’, if it has lawful possession of a copy of the whole or part of a published work (or the whole of part of broadcast), may make or supply accessible copies for the personal use of disabled persons, including supply to a person acting on behalf of a disabled person, provided the following conditions are met:

accessible copies of copyright protected works can be made only from lawfully accessed copies, e.g. copies legitimately purchased or licensed
the accessible copy may include facilities for navigating around the work, but may not include changes that are not required to deal with the disabled person’s disability
the accessible copy is made for the disabled person’s personal use
any fee charged may only cover the cost of making the accessible copy on a non-profit basis
a judgment is made whether to make an accessible copy or obtain an accessible copy that may be available elsewhere.
an accessible copy must be accompanied by:

a) a statement that it is made under section 31B of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and

b) a sufficient acknowledgement of the source copyright work (unless this would be impossible for reasons of practicality or otherwise).

The Copyright Notice template to accompany an accessible copy is available here.

If these conditions are not satisfied, making an accessible copy will likely be considered an infringement of copyright, and the subsequent copy an infringing copy.

Finally, a disabled person or another authorised body or rights holder may make a request to the University to provide within a reasonable time:

a) the list of copyright works for which it has accessible copies and the available formats; and,

b) the name and contact details of any authorised body established in another member State of the European Union from which, or to which, it has imported, exported or accessed an accessible copy.

The main statutory provision for making accessible copies for disabled persons:
Sections 31A, 31B, 31BA, 31BB and 31F of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Changes to copyright law to implement the Marrakesh Directive, Intellectual Property Office, 2 May 2019

Lending of copyright works by libraries or archives

Section 40A(2) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 permits the lending of copies of copyright works by University libraries or archives.

Making works or copies of works available through dedicated terminals on the premises of a library, an archive, a museum and an educational establishment

Section 40B of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 permits University libraries, archives, and museums of other University bodies to communicate a copyright work to the public or make it available to the public by means of a dedicated terminal on its premises without infringing copyright, if certain conditions are met:

the work or copy of the work has been lawfully acquired by the library or other University body and is contained in the collection of the library
the work or copy of the work is communicated or made available to individual members of the public for the purposes of research or private study only
the work or copy of the work is communicated or made available subject in compliance with any purchase or licensing terms to which the work is subject.

Librarian copying: supply of single copies to other libraries

Section 41 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 permits a librarian to make a single copy of the whole or part of any kind of published work and supply it to another library without infringing copyright in the work, provided:

the copy is supplied in response to a request from a library which is not conducted for profit
that the request for the copy is for any kind of published work except for an article in a periodical
at the time of making the copy the librarian does not know, or could not reasonably find out, the name and address of a person entitled to authorise the making of a copy of the work
any sum charged by the library for supplying a copy under the section must be calculated by reference to the costs attributable to the production of the copy.

Any contract term that purports to prevent or restrict the operation of this exception is unenforceable.

Library, archive and museum copying: replacement copies of works

Section 42 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 permits a librarian, archivist or curator of a library, archive or museum to make a copy of an item, i.e. a work or copy of a work, in that institution’s permanent collection without infringing copyright for one of two purposes:

to preserve or replace that item in the institution’s own permanent collection
to replace an item in the permanent collection of another not-for-profit library, archive or museum that has been lost, destroyed or damaged, provided the sum charged for supplying a copy to another library, archive or museum is calculated by reference to the costs attributable to the production of the copy.

Two conditions apply to both of the above purposes:

the item in question must be included in the part of the collection kept wholly or mainly for the purposes of reference on the institution’s premises, or is a part of the collection not accessible to the public, or is available on loan only to other libraries, archives or museums; and
it is not practicable to purchase a copy of the item.

Any contract term that purports to prevent or restrict the operation of this exception is unenforceable.

Librarian copying: supply of copies of published material to users, i.e. one article from any one issue of a periodical or a reasonable proportion of any other published work

Section 42A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 permits a librarian to make and supply one article in any one issue of a periodical, or a reasonable proportion of any other published work, i.e. for published literary works this is generally considered to be about 5% or one chapter, whichever is greater, without infringing copyright in the work, if the following conditions are met:

the copy is supplied in response to a request from a person who has provided the librarian with a ‘user declaration’ in writing (which may be by email), which includes the information set out below, and which is received before the copy is made
the librarian is not aware that the declaration is false in a material particular, i.e. if the librarian knows that the declaration is dishonest the copy must not be made.

The user declaration must state:

the name of the person who requests the copy and details of the material required
a statement that the person has not previously been supplied with a copy of the same material by any library or archive
a statement that the person requires the copy for the purposes of research for a non-commercial purpose or private study, will use it only for those purposes and will not supply the copy to any other person, and
a statement that to the best of the person’s knowledge, no other person with whom the person works or studies has made, or intends to make, at or about the same time as the user’s request, a request for substantially the same material for substantially the same purpose.

Where the requestor makes a declaration under this section that is false in a material particular and is supplied with a copy which would have been an infringing copy if made by the requestor, the requestor is liable for infringement of copyright as if the requestor had made the copy, and the copy supplied to the requestor is to be treated as an infringing copy for all purposes.

Any contract term that purports to prevent or restrict the operation of this exception is unenforceable.

There is no longer a statutory form of declaration for users requesting a copy, but a declaration in writing must still be received, which may be sent electronically. A model copyright form and guidance is provided by the by the UK Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA):

FORM A DECLARATION: COPY OF ARTICLE OR PART OF PUBLISHED WORK

Librarians and archivists are reminded that this is a UK statutory provision, so they are under no obligation to supply copies outside the UK. However, if they take the decision to supply copies to requestors outside the UK they are urged to keep in mind the difficulties that may arise in enforcing declaration terms and dealing with unauthorised copying and other abuses of supplied copies in other jurisdictions.

Any fee charged for supplying a copy under this section may cover only the cost of making the copy or may be waived.

Due to long copyright periods and the opportunity for infringement possible at any time a work remains in copyright, Librarians are advised to keep copies of received declarations in perpetuity:

Registrary’s Office, Statement of Records Management Practice and Master Records Retention Schedule, Section 10 Libraries, 10.3.4 Copyright declarations.

Librarian or archivist copying: supply of copies of unpublished material to users, i.e. a single copy of the whole or part of an unpublished work, provided that copyright owner has not prohibited the copying of the work

Section 43 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 permits a librarian or archivist to make and supply a single copy of the whole or part of an unpublished work without infringing copyright in the work, if the following conditions are met:

the copy is supplied in response to a request from a person who has provided the librarian or archivist with a declaration in writing (which may be by email), which includes the information set out below, and which is received before the copy is made
the librarian or archivist is not aware that the declaration is false in a material particular, i.e. if the librarian or archivist knows that the declaration is dishonest the copy must not be made.

The user declaration must state:

the name of the person who requires the copy and details of the material required
a statement that the person has not previously been supplied with a copy of the same material by any library or archive
a statement that the person requires the copy for the purposes of research for a non-commercial purpose or private study, will use it only for those purposes and will not supply the copy to any other person
a statement that to the best of the person’s knowledge, the work had not been published before the document was deposited in the library or archive and the copyright owner has not prohibited copying of the work.

Where the requestor makes a declaration under this section that is false in a material particular and is supplied with a copy which would have been an infringing copy if made by the requestor, the requestor is liable for infringement of copyright as if the requestor had made the copy, and the copy supplied to the requestor is to be treated as an infringing copy for all purposes.

Any contract term that purports to prevent or restrict the operation of this exception is unenforceable.

There is no longer a statutory form of declaration for users requesting a copy, but a declaration in writing must still be received, which may be sent electronically. A model copyright form and guidance is provided by the by the UK Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA):

FORM B DECLARATION: COPY OF ARTICLE OR PART OF UNPUBLISHED WORK

Librarians and archivists are reminded that this is a UK statutory provision, so they are under no obligation to supply copies outside the UK. However, if they take the decision to supply copies to requestors outside the UK they are urged to keep in mind the difficulties that may arise in enforcing declaration terms and dealing with unauthorised copying and other abuses of supplied copies in other jurisdictions.

Any fee charged for supplying a copy under this section may cover only the cost of making the copy or may be waived.

Due to long copyright periods and the opportunity for infringement possible at any time a work remains in copyright, Librarians are advised to keep copies of received declarations in perpetuity:

Registrary’s Office, Statement of Records Management Practice and Master Records Retention Schedule, Section 10 Libraries, 10.3.4 Copyright declarations.

Library and archive copying: judicial proceedings or statutory inquiries

Sections 45 and 46 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 permit the copying and use of a copyright work without infringement for the purposes of parliamentary or judicial proceedings (i.e. the latter before a court or tribunal) or of a Royal Commission or statutory inquiry (i.e. the latter held under a duty imposed or a power given by a statute).

Librarians and archivists should expect requestors intending to rely on these copyright exceptions to provide evidence that any copies they require are for the actual proceedings or inquiry and not only in contemplation of proceedings, and should make users aware that use of the copies is limited to use in the proceedings or inquiry. For this purpose, when supplying a copyright work for the purposes of judicial proceedings or statutory inquiry, the following notice should be prominently marked on the supplied copy or on a cover page as part of the copy:

This copy of the [description of work, i.e. author, title etc., classmark/folio number if applicable] is supplied by [name of library or other body] to [name and contact details of organisation, e.g. law firm, that requested the document(s)] [under s.45 of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 for the purposes of judicial proceedings identified as [court name, name of proceedings, and court claim or docket number (if applicable)] OR delete as appropriate under s.46 of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 for the purposes of statutory inquiry identified as [name of statutory inquiry, location, dates (if applicable)]. Copying of the work for any other purpose is strictly prohibited.

[The organisation, e.g. law firm, requesting the document] hereby accepts liability for any claims of infringement of copyright, or of any other intellectual property or proprietary right arising from its request for a copy of the [description of the work, i.e. author, title etc.].

A responsible approach to digitizing library or archival holdings dictates that the source materials to be digitized must be:

a) in the public domain, i.e. copyright in the materials has expired (expired worldwide if the digitized material is to be distributed on the Internet or in social media); or,

b) in the judgment of the Library, unencumbered with known copyright restrictions; or,

c) materials for which the Library or the digitizing requestor or partner agrees to obtain copyright permissions for all defined uses of the material, including uses by the Library (if required or desired).

Any permission plan must address the issues of copyright ownership in the digitized copies (if any), any derivative work and metadata, uses of the digitized materials by the Library and digitization requestor/partner, permission/licence fees to original source copyright holders, and risk and indemnity should copyright holders of the original source materials assert their ownership.

For source works made before 1 August 1989

The provisions of the UK Copyright Act 1956, ss. 7(6)-(9) apply to a manuscript or copy of an unpublished literary, dramatic or musical work (including any illustration within but not an artistic work on its own) made before 1 August 1989, which may be reproduced for purposes of research or private study or with a view to publication, if the following conditions are met:

it is kept in a library, museum or other institution open to public inspection
it has not been previously published
it is at least 100 years old
the author has been dead for at least 50 years.

The copy may be published, as long as the publisher is unaware of the identity of the present copyright owner. Once the work is published and is considered so, the exception may no longer be used to supply further copies of the original manuscript or copy of the unpublished work.

Publication right

To note, the 1956 Copyright Act provisions that deal with publication of old copyright works, as described above, should be considered alongside the “publication right”, a property right equivalent to copyright, which is granted without registration or other formality to the first person to publish a previously unpublished literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or a film which is no longer in copyright. The right lasts for 25 years from the end of the year in which the work was first published, and is granted to the first publisher of a previously unpublished work.

Publication in the context of publication right includes any making of the work available to the public such as the issue of copies to the public, making the work available by means of an electronic retrieval system, the rental or lending of copies of the work to the public, the performance, exhibition or showing of the work to the public, or communicating the work to the public by electronic transmission.

Of importance, publication right is only available upon expiry of the work, which makes it of limited application and utility in the UK at this time. Generally, due to the effect of changes by statute to copyright terms for various works, copyright in unpublished literary, dramatic and musical works (unpublished as of 1 August 1989) will not expire earlier than the end of 2039.

In practical effect then, the operation of publication right is currently restricted to unpublished artistic works (other than engravings), so that a University library, archive, museum, gallery or other body should think carefully before allowing any unpublished artistic work (other than engravings) to be used by others, e.g. lending a work to a researcher or to a person at another library, museum or gallery – that person that could then become the first owner of publication right in that work. Any document that deals with image reproduction rights or permissions to copy should carry the following clause as a protection:

If the images of the work or any work(s) reproduced in the images have not previously been published then any publication right therein is hereby assigned absolutely to the [name of University library, museum, gallery or other granting body] for the full period of such publication rights.

The legislative provision for publication right:

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