Copyright Basics
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Copyright is an intellectual property right that protects an original idea that has been expressed and fixed in a material form, e.g. by writing or recording, published or unpublished.
Copyright arises automatically when a work is fixed. In the UK, there are no procedures such as registration that need to be followed for a work to receive copyright protection.
Copyright law lays out a framework of rules around how a copyright work can be used. It gives the author or creator of a work the exclusive right to copy the work, to issue copies of the work to the public, to communicate the work to the public, rent or lend the work, and perform, show or play the work in public, in essence giving the copyright owner the right to control use of the work by others.
Amended from time to time, the main statute governing copyright in the UK is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA).
Copyright subsists in and protects the following original works:
Literary works such as books, journal articles, novels or poems, tables, computer programs, preparatory design materials for a computer program, databases;
Artistic works such as paintings, drawings, diagrams, maps, charts, plans, engravings, etchings, photographs, sculptures, collages, works of architecture, works of artistic craftsmanship;
Dramatic works such as plays, ballet choreographies, film screenplays;
Musical works, including their notation, but not lyrics, which are treated as literary works. Copyright exists in a musical work, i.e. sheet music, which is separate from copyright in a sound recording of a musical work;
Sound recordings include recordings of musical works, film soundtracks and oral history recordings. A sound recording may include separate copyrights in underlying literary, musical or dramatic copyright works;
Films, i.e. recordings of moving images;
Broadcasts, i.e. radio or television transmissions. Copyright in a broadcast is a separate copyright to copyright in a film or sound recording as part of a broadcast;
Typographical arrangements of published editions, i.e. the appearance of the printed page, e.g. layout of a newspaper page; and
Performers’ rights in performances, including in musical performances, lectures and public presentations.
Works or products may contain many separate copyrights:
A book or journal article may contain text and tables (treated by copyright law as literary works) and photographs, maps and plans (artistic works) within its overall published form (typographical arrangement of a published edition);
A film, in addition to the physical film as a separate work, may contain an underlying script or screenplay (literary works), set designs, costumes and photographs (artistic works) and original music and other soundtracks (musical works and sound recordings). The broadcast of a film acquires copyright protection in its own right.
The first copyright owner of a work is usually its author, which is the person who creates the work, and is normally the person who fixes the work in a material form, e.g. the person who writes the text, the artist, photographer, playwright or composer.
In the case of works created by employees in the course of their employment, it is the employer who is the first owner of copyright in their employee’s work, but this rule may be amended by express or implied agreement to the contrary, e.g. in the case of University employees, as set out in their employment contracts and in Statutes and Ordinances of the University of Cambridge, Ordinances, Chapter XIII Finance and Property, Intellectual Property Rights, pp. 1073-1080.
A work of joint authorship is created when two or more authors contribute in a pre-conceived common design and their contributions are not distinct from that of the other author(s). If the contributions of each author to a work are distinct, the parts contributed by each of them have separate copyrights, unless they agree otherwise.
Ownership of copyright in a work may be transferred to third parties by “assignment”, or licensed i.e. certain use is allowed but copyright is retained by the owner, e.g. Creative Commons Licences.
The duration of copyright in a work, which is calculated on the lifetime plus a certain number of years after the death of the author, is unaffected if an employer or someone else is the first owner of the work or if copyright ownership of the work changes by assignment or licensing.
If copyright no longer subsists in a work, it is said to be in the ‘public domain’ and no permission is required to copy or use that work or quotations, extracts or excerpts from it, but the source must be acknowledged.
According to UK copyright law, the standard term of copyright is to the end of the calendar year 70 years after the author’s death. However, the standard term does not always apply, notably for unpublished works that may be in copyright until the end of the calendar year 2039.
Best to consult the following copyright duration charts:
The National Archives copyright duration charts for UK literary, artistic, dramatic and musical works, look for “flowcharts for Crown copyright and non-Crown copyright”;
Note that copyright in a published edition (‘typographical arrangement’) has a separate 25 year copyright term, which means that copying the whole or large part of a ‘new’ edition of an out-of-copyright work published within the last 25 years is not permitted without the permission of the publisher of the ‘new’ edition.
A copyright owner of a work acquires economic rights. The author/creator of a work, often its first copyright owner, acquires moral rights as well.
Economic rights
Legislation governing copyright in the UK, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA), sets outs the copyright owner’s economic rights in a work as a series of exclusive ‘Restricted Acts’ that only the owner can exercise or authorise another to do in relation to the work:
- the right to:
- copy or reproduce the work
- issue copies of the work to the public, e.g. publish
- rent or lend the work
- perform, show or play the work
- communicate the work to the public, e.g. on the Internet, in social media, and
- make an adaptation of the work, e.g. translate a literary work, alter or modify a photograph, or do any of the above in relation to an adaptation.
- benefit financially from the work.
These Restricted Acts apply to the whole of the work or a ‘substantial part’ of it. Determining what is a substantial part of a work is assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively. However, from court rulings, it is sensible to assume that a small part of a work, for example, a headline from a newspaper or a few lines from a short poem, could be considered a substantial part of that work.
If anyone other than the copyright owner wishes to do any of the Restricted Acts with a copyright work beyond what is permitted by legal statutory exceptions from copyright protection, i.e. where copying and use of a copyright work is allowed without permission from, or payment to, the copyright owner, they require permission from the copyright owner, often in the form of a written licence.
Licences may be exclusive or non-exclusive. A non-exclusive licence gives permission to do something, but allows the copyright owner to give licences to any number of other people as well, in essence allowing the copyright owner to license their material over and over again, e.g. Creative Commons Licences.
An exclusive licence limits the permission to do something to one recipient, so the copyright owner, say an author of a work, may not grant the same rights to anyone else, including the copyright owner, unless the copyright owner has reserved certain rights (a reservation of rights) in the licence document, e.g. a publication agreement where the author grants the publisher an exclusive licence to publish the author’s work, with a reservation of rights inter alia permitting the author to post a pre-print of their work in their institution’s digital repository such as the University’s Apollo Repository and re-use certain portions of the work in other works.
Moral rights
The legislation governing copyright in the UK gives an author/creator of a copyright literary, artistic, dramatic or musical work and the director of a film the following “moral rights” in relation to their work:
- Paternity right – the right to be identified as the author, asserted in writing as it must be to establish it, whenever the author’s work is published commercially, exhibited to the public or included in a film or broadcast.
A common way of asserting the right is to include a provision in any legal document that deals with your work, e.g. in a publishing or other licensing agreement, e.g.:
[Name of author] has asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
- Integrity right – the right to object to derogatory treatment of the work, including any distortion or mutilation of the work prejudicial to the author, e.g. misrepresentation of the work, use of extracts of the work in a misleading way.
- False attribution – the right not to have a work an author did not create falsely attributed to him or her.
Moral rights do not apply to:
- Computer programs or typeface designs, but can apply to screen displays and software user or reference manuals
- An author of a literary, artistic, dramatic or musical work who died before 1 August 1989 or to a director of a film made before 1 August 1989
- An author of a literary, artistic, dramatic or musical work or to a director of a film where the employer of the author or director was the first owner of copyright and approved its publication or use
- Any work created for the reporting of current events
- A publication in a newspaper, magazine or collective work of reference of a literary, artistic, dramatic or musical work created for that purpose or made available for that purpose with the consent of the author.
Moral rights last as long as copyright subsists in the work, except false attribution which lasts for a period of 20 years after the death of the work’s author.
A moral right may be waived in writing by the author giving up the right, but the right cannot be assigned, i.e. transferred to a third party. Therefore, moral rights remain with the author/creator of the work and to their estate even if copyright in the work has been sold or passed on to another.
Authors may be asked to “waive” or give up their moral rights in writing, often in publishing or collaborative agreements, in effect giving up their moral right to be identified and credited as the author of a work in each copy of the work. An alternative in a contract with the author may be offered in the form of a simple acknowledgement of the author wherever practicable, but failure to acknowledge the author in the latter is legally less serious (breach of contract) than an infringement of a moral right (akin to copyright infringement).
Copyright protection is created automatically when a work is recorded in material form, and although there is no legal process to go through or requirement to register copyright in your work in the UK to establish copyright, it is advisable to have your work prominently carry a standard copyright notice and the year of publication, e.g.
Copyright © 2019 [Name of author].
An author’s moral right of paternity to the work, i.e. the right to be identified as its author, to take legal effect must by law be done in writing, and usually accompanies a copyright notice, as above, with a statement in the manner of:
[Name of author] has asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
Copyright may be infringed in a number of ways, by any person or organisation that carries out or authorises another person or organisation to exercise any of the following Restricted Acts without permission or a licence from the copyright owner:
- copying or reproducing the work in any material form, whether in hard copy or electronically
- issuing copies of the work to the public, e.g. publishing
- renting or lending the work to the public
- performing, showing or playing the work in public
- communicating the work to the public, e.g. on the Internet, in social media
- making an adaptation of the work, e.g. translating a literary work, altering or modifying a photograph, or doing any of the above in relation to an adaptation.
These Restricted Acts apply to the whole of the work or a ‘substantial part’ of it. Determining what is a substantial part of a work is assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively. However, from court rulings, it is sensible to assume that a small part of a work, for example, a headline from a newspaper or a few lines from a short poem, would be considered a substantial part of that work.
It follows that the copying of almost any copyright material is likely to involve an infringement of copyright unless it is permitted by a statutory exception such the ‘fair dealing exceptions’ or is licensed/permission has been granted by the copyright owner.
The carrying out of a ‘Restricted Act’ by anyone other than the copyright owner or under authority from the copyright owner is an act of strict liability, meaning that the copyright owner need not demonstrate that the person or entity ‘infringing’ knew or intended to infringe copyright.
An infringement of a moral right is actionable as a breach of statutory duty owed to the author of a work entitled to that right.
A copyright owner may bring civil proceedings by application to a court for the following remedies if copyright is infringed in his or her work:
- Injunctions to prevent further unauthorised use
- Damages, to compensate the copyright owner for the loss occasioned by the unauthorised use of their work, often based on what a reasonable licence fee would have been or the infringer’s profit from the unauthorised use of the work, and punitive damages if the infringement has been of a flagrant nature
- Orders for the delivering up of infringing copies for forfeiture to the court or the copyright owner or for disposal
- A right to seize and detain infringing copies exposed for sale or hire.
By law, licence fees may be levied by a copyright owner or their representative, regardless of immediate removal of an infringing item after notification from the copyright owner. In that sense, whilst a notice-and-takedown procedure is a sensible policy to maintain, taking down the offending copyright work may not necessarily eliminate the need to pay a licence fee and penalty for unauthorised use.
At the University, for offending material made available by an individual on his or her personal website, publication or otherwise, financial liability devolves to that individual; for material made available by the University, as prescribed by the University’s Financial Regulations, financial liability devolves to the Faculty, Department or School that has incurred the liability.
Useful guidance on what you can do if you believe someone has infringed your copyright, or if you have received a notice of copyright infringement concerning your work: S Burrow, D Bonazzi, Enforcement, copyrightuser.org.
No. Google and other free image sites display clear notices that “images may be subject to copyright”.
Copyright is a strict liability offence, i.e. ignorance of the law or of the copyright status of a work is no defence to copyright infringement, so any images found online almost always and with very few exceptions must be licensed prior to use and licence terms followed precisely, especially prescribed attribution/credit/acknowledgement.
Creative Commons (CC) Licences permits the use of the images only if the terms of the Licence the image is released by are complied with, including attribution (crediting the copyright owner/holder) and link-back or reference to the specific CC Licence.
Failure to fully comply with these terms constitutes unauthorised use, and consequently copyright infringement.
If you are thinking of using a Creative Commons-licensed work you can read more in CC wiki’s Considerations for Licensees.
Removal of an image or other work from your website does not necessarily resolve the issue of unauthorised/unlicensed use. A copyright owner or their representative may insist that they be compensated for use of their work.
If you wish to use an image or illustration or other type of work that is still in copyright, you will need to seek permission from the copyright holder. Each permission you may receive will no doubt have specific criteria which you must meet; acknowledging the author is important, but not enough to do away with obtaining permission.
Copyright is a strict liability offence, i.e. ignorance of the law or of the copyright status of a work is no defence to copyright infringement, so any images found online almost always and with very few exceptions must be licensed prior to use and licence terms followed precisely.
You should request permission from a copyright owner when neither law nor licence permit you to use a copyright work in the way you wish.
In other words, you will need to obtain permission unless you can rely on one or more of the following:
- your use of the work is permitted by one or more of the copyright exceptions in UK copyright law, which include “fair dealing copyright exceptions” such as use of a short extract/quotation from published material for teaching (‘illustration for instruction’) or as part of a critical commentary (‘criticism or review’). (For further information on copyright exceptions, see "Are there any exceptions to copyright...?")
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the work you intend to use has been released by an open access licence, e.g. an article released under one of the Creative Commons licences or other open access licence that permits your intended use, e.g. Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY Licence), the UK Government’s Open Government Licence, from a journal in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) (see "What are the Creative Commons Licences?")
- your intended use of the work is covered by terms that may permit your use, e.g. website or other platform terms of use or special permissions such as use of journal article figures or illustrations in STM PSP Guidelines for quotation and other academic uses of excerpts from journal articles, January 2016:
Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) Documents, enter ‘Guidelines for Quotation From Journal Articles’
Note that permission granted by a copyright holder for ‘personal, non-commercial use’ does not allow upload of their content to publicly accessed websites or social media.
- the work is covered by a licence the University has:
- with publishers of library resources, e.g. e-journals, e-books, databases
- with collective copyright licensing agencies, e.g.
- with publishers of library resources, e.g. e-journals, e-books, databases
Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) HE Licence for multiple copying of journal articles and book chapters to provide to students in Moodle (see "I have come across a journal article/chapter of a book...?");
Educational Recording Agency (ERA) Licence for the recording of television and radio programmes (see "Can I record/show television..?");
Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) Licence for copying and use of newspaper articles (see "What about newspapers?").
- the work you wish to use is in the public domain, i.e. copyright in the work has expired and is no longer protected by copyright. (See "How long does copyright last?".)
You should request permission from a copyright owner or their representative when neither law (listed below) nor licence (see previous question), permit you to use a copyright work in the way you wish.
The ‘fair dealing’ copyright exceptions:
‘Fair dealing’ is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work, the UK’s fair dealing exceptions:
Other copyright exceptions in UK law:
‘Fair dealing’ copyright exceptions:
‘Fair dealing’ copying of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, sound recording or film for your own private study or non-commercial research
You may make a single copy of a published literary, artistic, dramatic or musical work for your own personal non-commercial research or private study by means of photocopying or scanning or photography, to the following limits:
- one chapter of a book up to a maximum of 5 per cent of the whole or extracts from a book up to a maximum of 5 per cent of the whole of the book
- one article of a journal issue
- 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
- a short excerpt from a musical work for study purposes but not performance.
Fair dealing copying of a sound recording, film or broadcast for your own non-commercial research or private study, according to the government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO), means that a limited amount of a sound recording, film or broadcast may be copied for personal use. “This amount is restricted to fair dealing, which rules out unfair or unreasonable uses such as copying a whole film for ‘research’ instead of buying the DVD.”
Multiple copying of a work for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study is not considered fair dealing, e.g. photocopying more than a single copy is not allowed, nor is distributing further by posting on an intranet or the Internet, nor is sending a work or an extract thereof in an email or as an attachment.
Inclusion of extracts of copyright works in publications or commercial products or services such as commercial training courses does not fall within this fair dealing exception, but may well do in another.
The statutory provision for fair dealing for the purposes of research and private study:
Section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Exceptions to copyright: education and teaching, Intellectual Property Office, March 2014.
Exceptions to copyright: research, Intellectual Property Office, March 2014.
‘Fair dealing’ with a copyright work (using a short extract) for the sole purpose of illustration for instruction, the “teaching exception”, permits the copying and use of short extracts or passages from literary and musical works, films, sound recordings and broadcasts as well as artistic works for the following:
- In live and recorded lectures and as part of learning materials provided in restricted intranets such as Moodle to students on a course of study, if certain conditions are met:
- the material is used to illustrate or reinforce a teaching point, not to embellish a presentation
- only what is reasonably required to illustrate or reinforce a teaching point is copied and provided
- copies of extracts from works provided under the illustration for instruction exception are limited to those students being instructed
- the material made available under the exception is not made available to the public, e.g. made available online in a website or open repository or in social media
- original sources are cited.
- In the setting of examination questions, if certain conditions are met:
- only a portion of a copyright work that is necessary for the immediate purposes of examination is copied and provided, which will not normally be the whole work
- copies of extracts of works provided for an examination are limited to those students being examined
- original sources are cited.
- In an examinable paper such as a dissertation or thesis, if certain conditions are met:
- the copying is fair dealing, which means only copying a portion of a copyright work necessary to support a point or an argument, which will not normally be the whole work.
- original sources are cited and referenced.
- the dissertation or thesis remains unpublished (e.g. deposit of a PhD dissertation in the University Library in print and/or electronic format, but not published online), unless another exception to copyright infringement applies. In other words, the illustration for instruction exception applies to the use of short extracts in a dissertation or thesis that is to be examined and deposited in a library as an unpublished work but not to its subsequent publication, e.g. publication in an online digital repository such as University’s Apollo Repository.
The statutory provision for ‘fair dealing’ with a copyright work for the sole purpose of illustration for instruction, the “teaching exception”:
Section 32 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
‘Fair dealing’ with a copyright work (using a short extract) for criticism or review, quotation, news reporting
The ‘criticism or review, quotation and news reporting’ exception permits you to quote from a work or from a performance of a work, if certain conditions are met:
- the work quoted from has been lawfully made available to the public, e.g. the work has been published
- the extent of the quotation is no more than is required by the specific purpose for which it is used and not merely for illustration
- the use of the quotation is fair dealing with the work and, in particular, does not compete with exploitation of the work by its owner and affect its value
- if used for criticism or review, the quotation from the work must be directly relevant to the criticism or review undertaken of the work
- if used for criticism or review, the criticism or review, by text or voiceover, must directly accompany or run concurrently with the quotation or extract of the work being criticised or reviewed, e.g. on the same or immediately preceding or following PowerPoint slide in a lecture or on the same page in a publication, or with accompanying voiceover/commentary or text on screen in a video/film
- the author and source are acknowledged unless to do so is impractical.
As a rule then, the use of a quotation from a copyright work that has been ‘made available to the public’, i.e. by authorised publication, performance, exhibition, rental or lending, playing or showing of the work in public, is permitted if the use is ‘fair dealing’, meaning that no more is quoted than is reasonably required for the purpose and provided there is sufficient acknowledgement of the work and its author.
Custom and practice in academic publishing suggests that quotations of prose from a single copyright work for the purpose of criticism or review could be fair dealing if not greater than 400 words in a single quotation, or up to a total of 800 words in a series of short quotations, none of which is longer that 300 words.
In some instances, use of an entire work may be justified under the exception’s criticism or review limb, e.g. use of a photograph or an image of a work of art with accompanying criticism or review.
Also, short extracts from a film or sound recording may be used (only as much as is reasonably required) if they can be justified for the intended fair dealing purpose of criticism or review of the source work.
Concerning the news reporting exception, use of photographs is excluded from the exception, but clips of video/film or broadcast footage to report directly on a current event are the most common way of fair dealing for news reporting, e.g. using a clip from another’s footage of a major event in one’s own report of the event. The clip needs to have direct and sufficient relevance to the current event being reported.
The statutory provision for fair dealing with a copyright work for extracts for criticism or review, quotation, news reporting:
Section 30, of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Quick Guide to Permissions, London: The Society of Authors, 2009; Guide to Copyright and Permissions, London: The Society of Authors, 2016.
Exceptions to copyright: Guidance for consumers, Intellectual Property Office, March 2014.
Copyright Notice: digital images, photographs and the internet, Intellectual Property Office: Copyright notice Number 1/2014, updated November 2015.
‘Fair dealing’ with a copyright work (using a short extract) for the purposes of parody, caricature and/or pastiche
The exception concerning parody, caricature and/or pastiche permits a degree of copying, i.e. a portion but not the unchanged whole, of a copyright work to the extent that the use is fair dealing.
According to the government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO):
In broad terms: parody imitates a work for humorous or satirical effect. It evokes an existing work while being noticeably different from it. Pastiche is musical or other composition made up of selections from various sources or one that imitates the style of another artist or period. A caricature portrays its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way, which may be insulting or complimentary and may serve a political purpose or be solely for entertainment.
The IPO gives the following examples of uses under the exception:
a comedian may use a few lines from a film or song for a parody sketch; a cartoonist may reference a well-known artwork or illustration for a caricature; an artist may use small fragments from a range of films to compose a larger pastiche artwork.
The statutory provision for fair dealing with a copyright work for extracts for purposes of parody, caricature and/or pastiche:
Section 30A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Exceptions to copyright: Guidance for creators and copyright owners, Intellectual Property Office, March 2014.
Other copyright exceptions in UK law:
Copyright in a work expires, i.e. the work becomes part of the ‘public domain’
If copyright no longer subsists in a work, it is said to be in the ‘public domain’ and no permission is required to copy or use that work or quotations, extracts or excerpts from it, but the source must be acknowledged.
According to UK copyright law, the standard term of copyright is to the end of the calendar year 70 years after the author’s death. However, the standard term does not always apply, notably for unpublished works that may be in copyright until the end of the calendar year 2039.
Best to consult the following copyright duration charts:
The National Archives copyright duration charts for UK literary, artistic, dramatic and musical works, look for “flowcharts for Crown copyright and non-Crown copyright”.
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) UK copyright duration information for sound recordings, films and the typographical arrangements of published literary, dramatic or musical works.
Copies for text and data analysis for non-commercial research
Researchers are allowed to make copies of copyright works for text and data analysis for non-commercial research, if certain conditions are met:
- the user has legal access to the work being copied, e.g. as a library “authorised user” that can rely on subscriptions to databases or sources maintained by the library
- the author and source are acknowledged unless to do so is impractical
- copies of works made under the exception may not be transferred, sold or let for hire, except with the permission of the copyright owner.
Any contract term that seeks to avoid this exception is void under law, but the government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has added: “Publishers will be able to impose reasonable measures [e.g. researcher access may be made restricted to special servers or the use of publisher APIs] to maintain their network security or stability so long as these measures do not prevent or unreasonably restrict a researcher’s ability to make the copies they need to make for their text and data mining.”
The general principle is that mining of a Library resource may be undertaken so long as the mining falls within the conditions of the statutory exception. The Library should be informed by Library users if technical protection measures imposed by a publisher are restricting the ability to mine their resource. A publisher may get in touch with the Library which holds the material(s) being mined in order to verify levels of downloading.
Advice and support:
Cambridge Libraries, Text & Data Mining.
The statutory provision for making copies of copyright works for text and data analysis for non-commercial research:
Section 29A to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Amendment) Regulations 2014, Explanatory Memorandum, Intellectual Property Office.
Exceptions to copyright: research, Intellectual Property Office, October 2014.
Exceptions to copyright, Criticism, review and reporting current events, Intellectual Property Office, 18 November 2014.
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. The University, 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.
Performing a literary, dramatic or musical work at the University
UK copyright legislation permits the live performance of a literary, dramatic or musical work by lecturers or students in the course of the activities of the University or for the purposes of instruction before an audience consisting of students and lecturers and other persons directly connected with the activities of the University (not a public performance).
Regarding sheet music, the Music Publishers’ Association (MPA) has issued The Code of Fair Practice agreed between composers, publishers and users of printed music.
The statutory provision for performing a literary, dramatic or musical work at the University:
Section 34(1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Playing or showing of a sound recording, film or broadcast at the University
The playing or showing of a sound recording, film or broadcast before an audience made up of students and lecturers at an educational establishment and only for the purposes of instruction is not an infringement of copyright.
In other words, commercial music recordings and films may be played or shown at the University as long as the audience is restricted to students and the lecturer and the playing or showing is course-related.
Should the playing or showing of a sound recording, film or broadcast occur before an audience that includes anyone apart from lecturers and students at the University or is carried out for purposes other than for instruction and/or under paid admission, appropriate licences must be obtained:
For the playing of music sound recordings:
Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS for Music)
For the showing of films:
What licences do I need? Independent Cinema Office
Motion Picture Licensing Company (MPLC).
The statutory provision for the playing or showing of a sound recording, film or broadcast at the University by any person for the purposes of instruction:
Section 34(2) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Copying or issuing a copy of an abstract of a journal article on a scientific or technical subject
Where an article on a scientific or technical subject is published in a periodical accompanied by an abstract indicating the contents of the article, the abstract may be copied and may be issued to the public, e.g. (re-)published.
The statutory provision for the copying or issuing a copy of an abstract of a journal article on a scientific or technical subject:
Section 60 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Making a graphic work representing, or a photograph or film of, buildings, sculptures, models for buildings and works of artistic craftsmanship (“freedom of panorama”)
Regarding buildings (irrespective of location) and sculptures, models for buildings and works of artistic craftsmanship (if permanently situated in a public place or in premises open to the public), let’s call them “source works”, UK copyright legislation permits, without permission of the respective rights owner(s):
- the making of a graphic work representing the source work, e.g. by a drawing or a painting of the source work
- the making a photograph or film of the source work
- broadcasting a visual image of the source work, e.g. in a television programme
The freedom of panorama statutory copyright exception does not extend to paintings, drawings, engravings or photographs which are exhibited in public places or in premises open to the public.
Also, for sculptures, models for buildings and works of artistic craftsmanship there is a requirement of permanence of the source work, which would include taking a photograph of, for example, a copyright-protected sculpture in the permanent collection of a museum, but not of a sculpture on loan or part of a temporary exhibition.
"Open to the public" means premises such as a museum that the public do not have an automatic right of access to, but are admitted to by the person or body controlling those premises. Regardless, a museum may nullify the exception by contract if it imposes a condition of entry to its premises that visitors are prohibited from photographing works displayed.
Of note, the law on freedom of panorama exception to copyright protection is not necessarily in place in other countries with any or the same terms as the above-noted UK statutory provisions. In practical terms, if the distribution of images taken of source works under the exception is limited to the UK, the exception holds, e.g. print distribution in the UK only. However, if the image made under exception is of a source work outside the UK, e.g. located in a public place in Italy which has no equivalent exception, or is intended for distribution on the Internet, i.e. world-wide distribution, copyright may be infringed when the image is viewed or used.
Until the law is more settled, the freedom of panorama exception should not be relied upon for use of images of public works as defined in the statutory provision for online dissemination, including in websites and social media, and in commercial products with worldwide distribution, e.g. VR games.
The statutory provision for the making of graphic works or photographs or film of certain works on public display:
Section 62 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Copyright exceptions for libraries
Note: Technological protection measures
Media, such as DVDs and e-books, are often protected by Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) (also known as copy protection measures or Digital Rights Management (DRM)) which prevent unauthorised access or copying.
TPMs enable copyright owners to offer content in different ways and restrict use, e.g. streamed content. EU and UK law protects the right of copyright owners to use TPMs to protect their works, and generally circumvention of such technology is illegal.
The playing or showing of a sound recording, film or broadcast before an audience made up of students and lecturers at an educational establishment and only for the purposes of instruction is not an infringement of copyright.
In other words, commercial music recordings and films may be played or shown at the University as long as the audience is restricted to students and the lecturer and the playing or showing is course-related.
Should the playing or showing of a sound recording, film or broadcast occur before an audience that includes anyone apart from lecturers and students at the University or is carried out for purposes other than for instruction and/or under paid admission, appropriate licences must be obtained:
For the playing of music sound recordings:
Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS for Music) / PPL PRS TheMusicLicence
For the showing of films:
What licences do I need? Independent Cinema Office
Motion Picture Licensing Company (MPLC)
The statutory provision for the playing or showing of a sound recording, film or broadcast at the University by any person for the purposes of instruction:
Section 34(2) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
The Music Publishers’ Association (MPA) Code of Fair Practice sets out the MPA’s ‘fair dealing’ and other copyright exception limits to copying and use of musical works.
Of note, the University’s Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) Higher Education Licence (‘CLA Licence’) for multiple copying or scanning and distribution of extracts of copyright works does not apply to printed musical works.
Both ‘fair dealing’ in the UK and ‘fair use’ in the US are limitations and exceptions to the exclusive rights granted by copyright law to the authors of creative works.
‘Fair use’ as applied in the US is a more general concept than the narrower and more specific ‘fair dealing’ copyright exceptions, and is asserted as an affirmative defence to copyright infringement claims, framed in terms of balancing US Constitution First Amendment rights to freedom of speech against the copyrights of authors/creators.
Whilst there is overlap in the factors used to determine whether use of a copyright work for a particular purpose is ‘fair’, with those factors applied in varying degrees in court rulings worldwide, the terms ‘fair use’ and ‘fair dealing’ are not interchangeable. For example, the use of a copyright work in a particular way many be legal in the US, but may be an infringement of one or more of the more narrowly set and interpreted fair dealing exceptions in the UK.
In the US, four factors are applied to the specific facts of the use of a copyright work to determine whether a use is ‘fair’:
- the purpose and character of the use
- the nature of the work
- the amount used and the substantiality of what has been taken from the work
- the effect of the use on the potential market value for the work.
In the UK, specific copyright exceptions with prescribed conditions for each one may be relied on for certain uses:
- ‘Fair dealing’ copying of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, sound recording or film for your own private study or non-commercial research
- ‘Fair dealing’ with a copyright work for the sole purpose of illustration for instruction, the “teaching exception”
- ‘Fair dealing’ with a copyright work for extracts for criticism or review, quotation, news reporting
- ‘Fair dealing’ with a copyright work for the purposes of parody, caricature and/or pastiche
The UK government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) explains the nature of ‘fair dealing’:
There is no statutory definition of fair dealing - it will always be a matter of fact, degree and impression in each case. The question to be asked is: how would a fair-minded and honest person have dealt with the work?
Factors that have been identified by the courts as relevant in determining whether a particular dealing with a work is fair include:
- does using the work affect the market for the original work? If a use of a work acts as a substitute for it, causing the owner to lose revenue, then it is not likely to be fair
- is the amount of the work taken reasonable and appropriate? Was it necessary to use the amount that was taken? Usually only part of a work may be used
The relative importance of any one factor will vary according to the case in hand and the type of dealing in question.
US ‘fair use’ can apply to a range of uses of copyright works such as in teaching, scholarship or research, but there is no definitive list of uses as in UK fair dealing, so each individual use has to be looked at on case-by-case basis.
Exceptions to copyright, Fair dealing, Intellectual Property Office, 18 November 2014.
Creative Commons (CC) is an organisation that provides ‘ready-made’ licences to authors/copyright owners of works who wish to release their original works in any media, including the Internet, under certain conditions: https://creativecommons.org/.
CC Licences are not an alternative to copyright, nor do they replace copyright, but they allow authors to retain copyright in their works and license their works under standard non-exclusive licence terms.
All Creative Commons Licences allow end-users to make copies of the whole of the work, but end-users are restricted to using the work according to the terms of the particular CC Licence that the work has been released/licensed under.
Creative Commons Licences may be applied to databases and are usually part of open access publishing agreements. Many research funders now require the results of research they fund to be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) Licence.
The six Creative Commons Licences, listed below from their most open user terms to most restrictive:
CC BY (Attribution) Licence
allows a user to copy, distribute, display and perform the work and to create derivative works, i.e. creating an own version/building upon the work that is licensed, including for commercial purposes, subject to the user crediting the author/copyright owner of the original work;
CC BY-SA (Attribution-Share Alike) Licence
allows a user to copy, distribute, display and perform the work and to create derivative works, including for commercial purposes, subject to the user crediting the author/copyright owner of the original work and making his or her derivative work available on these same licence terms and conditions;
CC BY-ND (Attribution-No Derivative Works) Licence
allows a user to copy, distribute, display and perform the work including for commercial purposes as long as the original work remains unchanged, i.e. no derivative works, subject to the user crediting the author/copyright owner of the original work;
CC BY-NC (Attribution-Non-Commercial) Licence
allows a user to copy, distribute, display and perform the work and to create derivative works for non-commercial purposes only, subject to crediting the author/copyright owner of the original work;
CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike) Licence
allows a user to copy, distribute, display and perform the work and to make derivative works for non-commercial purposes only, subject to the user crediting the author/copyright owner of the original work and making his or her derivative work available on these same licence terms and conditions;
CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works) Licence
allows a user to copy, distribute, display and perform the work for non-commercial purposes only as long as the original work remains unchanged, i.e. no derivative works, subject to crediting the author/copyright owner of the original work.
Useful information re Creative Commons Licences
Licence chooser, Creative Commons.
Creative Commons FAQs, Creative Commons.
Considerations for licensors and licensees, Creative Commons wiki.
Which Creative Commons licence is right for me? poster, Creative Commons Australia.
Marking your work with a CC Licence, Creative Commons wiki.
Best practices for attribution, Creative Commons wiki.
Attributing CC Materials, Creative Commons Australia.
Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work? Creative Commons.
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Content mining, A Guide to Mining CC-Licensed Material, Creative Commons wiki.
You need to abide by the terms of the particular Creative Commons (CC) Licence the work has been released under, at times initially marked ‘Some rights reserved’ with an underlying CC Licence. Also, CC Licences require the user to attribute the author/creator of the image, but how that attribution can be provided is flexible depending on the type of licence and the medium in which the image is being used.
Detailed guides on attributing CC licensed material:
Marking your work with a CC Licence, Creative Commons wiki.
When neither law, e.g. a fair dealing exception, nor licence, e.g. a Creative Commons Licence, permit you to use a copyrighted work in the way you would wish:
The steps in seeking permission from copyright owners to reproduce or use their work:
Identify the copyright owner or holder
First, you need to identify the copyright owner of the work, usually identified by the © symbol with the copyright owner’s name next to it.
You will often find this at the beginning of a book, alongside or below a photograph, or at the footer of a website, or at the end of a film.
If the copyright owner or holder is a commercial publisher or an academic journal, the quickest way of securing permission is to use the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service.
Journals often provide links to CCC’s RightsLink service directly from the journal article page under ‘Permissions’ or ‘RightsLink’ information.
If the publisher or academic journal does not offer permission through the CCC or its RightsLink service, you need to check the publisher’s or academic journal’s website under ‘Permissions’ or ‘Rights and Permissions’ or ‘Copyright’ or ‘Contact Us’ or similar to find the publisher’s or academic journal’s preferred method of dealing with permissions requests. Some publishers may provide an online permissions request form.
If the copyright owner or holder is an individual or organisation that offers permissions information but does not appear to use any collective copyright licensing broker such as CCC or its RightsLink service or have its own online form, you need to email or write to the individual or organisation, explaining why you wish to use their work and request permission.
Information to include in permission request:
- Identify exactly the material you wish to reproduce, (title, author, excerpt, image, figure, table etc.) and indicate any adaptation or amendment you plan to apply to it.
- Give full details of your intended use, i.e. purpose, format, location, e.g. for upload to a password-protected Moodle course site, for upload to an open website, etc.
- Identify the rights you wish to secure, time period of use.
If permission is granted; citation, acknowledgement, credit lines
Permission may come in the form of a letter or e-mail from the publisher and/or copyright owner or it may be in the form of a licence agreement. If the copyright owner has proposed a licence that covers what you need and if you are willing to pay the fee that is requested, then you will be able to use the material in the manner stipulated by the terms of the licence agreement.
Always keep on file any correspondence or written permission or licence as proof of permission.
Any quoted or reproduced material must be provided with a source, naming the copyright owner of the work (who may or may not be the author or creator), its title, and other information such as specific page or other relevant references that will allow the reader to trace the work and verify the quotation.
Copyright acknowledgements should appear next to the item reproduced. Copyright holders often make the position and wording of the acknowledgement a condition of granting permission, so their requirements should be followed carefully.
If you have adapted or modified another’s work with their permission, they will have supplied you with their prescribed credit notice, but in any case, the source credit should include the author/title of the original figure and that the material has been adapted with permission, e.g. “Adapted from…” and “Reproduced with the permission of…”
All Creative Commons (CC) Licences require the user to attribute the copyright owner/author/creator of the work being used, but how that attribution can be provided is flexible depending on the type of licence and the medium in which the work is being used.
Detailed guides on attributing CC licensed material:
Marking your work with a CC Licence, Creative Commons wiki.
Best practices for attribution, Creative Commons wiki.
Attributing CC Materials, Creative Commons Australia.
If you are licensing your work under a Creative Commons Licence, it is unlikely the copyright owner of third party material you wish to include in your work will give you permission for their material to be released to the world under the Creative Commons Licence that you have chosen for your own work. However, if they have done so and you have marked their work with a credit line as they have prescribed, e.g. “all rights reserved”, to ensure that end-users are aware of any distinction between the permission/licence you have been granted and the terms of the Creative Commons Licence you have chosen for your own work, mark the licensed item as prescribed and preface the release of your work under a CC Licence with the wording ‘Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons [ ] Licence.
If permission is not granted
Copyright owners/holders have the right to say no to your permission request. Also, if you do not receive a reply to your permission request you cannot presume that you may use the material. It is very important to keep a record of all attempts made to gain permission. If your permission request is ultimately unsuccessful you should remove the material from your work and seek to replace it with a suitable and licensable work, or reassess whether you can use extracts from the work or another suitable work under one of the copyright exceptions such as fair dealing for the purpose of quotation/criticism or review.
Keeping a permissions log
As you work on gaining permissions you should:
- Maintain a log that records your permission requests to the copyright holders and precise details of the rights granted
- Keep a file of correspondence to and from copyright holders
- Record fees due and paid
- Keep a list of the copyright lines or credits requested by copyright holders.
Orphan works are those works protected by copyright or believed to be in copyright, but whose current copyright owners are unknown or untraceable by reasonable enquiry. With copyright being a property right capable of, in whole or in part, being sold or given away by assignment, i.e. ownership transferred to another, or bequeathed, it is often difficult to locate or establish current copyright ownership in a work, particularly for older unpublished literary, artistic, dramatic or musical works, films and sound recordings.
An orphan work is not one that is simply out-of-print or where the copyright owner has not responded to permission requests to copy the work, in whole or in part, for a particular use. If permission is denied, or the known owner does not respond, the work may not be used. Also, the use of a disclaimer/take-down notice alone is insufficient to protect the user of the orphan work against legal action by its copyright owner.
Two ‘orphan works schemes’ permit the use of orphan works:
The EU scheme allows educational establishments, museums, archives and other cultural organisations (“relevant bodies”) to make a digital copy of an orphan literary work, audio-visual and sound recording and embedded visual art, and index and catalogue the work, use the copy for preservation purposes, and make the work available online non-commercially. Unpublished works are included in the scheme only if the rights owner approved public access to them.
Any revenues which are generated from the reproduction of the orphan work may only be used for the exclusive purpose of covering the costs of the relevant body in digitising orphan works and making them available to the public.
The UK scheme is available for commercial and non-commercial use of orphan works of all types in the UK only (so no online use - online via the Internet means worldwide distribution), on receipt of a licence from the UK government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and payment of a fee. IPO guidance:
Copyright: orphan works, How to get permission to copy a creative work for which the right holder(s) cannot be found ie an orphan work.
Both the EU and UK schemes make provision for compensating a rights owner that may be found or appear.
Both orphan works schemes require “diligent searches” to find the rights holder of the work you intend to use, the EU scheme requiring registration of the diligent search at the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), the UK scheme with the IPO. Before doing so, consider the following:
1. Is the work in copyright? Check copyright duration charts. If copyright in the orphan work has expired, subject to certain other considerations such as the existence of other intellectual property rights like trademarks in the work, the work can be used without permission.
2. A ‘diligent search’ involves expending considerable resources. An alternative work should always be considered, unless a specific work is necessary.
3. Where there are multiple rights holders in a work, e.g. a work with multiple images by different photographers or a film with multiple contributors, you will need to undertake a diligent search for each rights holder.
If proceeding with a diligent search, the IPO has issued guidance 16 March 2018:
Orphan works diligent search guidance for applicants.
To assist in a diligent search the EU’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) operates The Orphan Works Database.
The following resources may assist with tracing copyright holders:
JISC COPAC Research Library Catalogue may help to establish the first publisher of a title.
Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Owners (WATCH) is a joint project of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Reading Library. The WATCH website provides a database of major copyright holders, a search facility and useful advice on locating UK and US copyright holders.
Designers and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) is the UK copyright licensing and collecting society for visual creators, representing UK and international artists who are identified on its website.
You may provide a link to any publicly accessible page of any website, unless you suspect that the material posted on the site is infringing or otherwise unlawful.
Citing copyright-protected material
Follow the citation guidelines for your field or discipline, e.g. APA, Harvard, Chicago, MHRA. Cambridge Libraries, LibGuides, Study Skills, Reference Management provides referencing advice.
In any case, cite at least the source of the material, e.g., the book title, journal title, article title, and if another type of copyright work, the name of the author/creator of the material.
For works from the Internet, including images, the source cited should include at least the URL, i.e., the web address, from where the content was retrieved and the name of the author/creator if available.
For materials that you are using with permission from the copyright owner, please include a statement something to the effect of “Used with permission from [Name of Copyright Holder]” in addition to attribution of the source, author/creator and title of the work. The copyright owner will mostly likely be the publisher or the author/creator of the work.
Image citations in my PowerPoint slides
Citing images used in PowerPoint slides and other course materials is part of providing “sufficient acknowledgement” of the title and author of a work authors/creators, as required by UK copyright law.
Generally, image citations should meet the same requirements as a text citation, i.e. a reader should be able to find the source of the image, and the image itself, based on the information in the citation.
Citations can be included:
Alongside each image, i.e. above, below or adjacent to the image, on the slide where the image appears, or on an ‘Image Reference List’ slide included in the slide presentation. Note/number the images so they correspond with those referenced in the image reference list.
If all or most of the images are from the same source, you may include a statement at the start or end of your slides with wording to the effect: “Unless otherwise noted, all images in this presentation are from [source title and author/creator].”
If you include images such as photographs or diagrams that you created and for which you are the copyright holder, you may wish to include an attribution notice, e.g. © [Year image created, Author/Creator name].
Citing images from websites, online image databases or licensed image databases
Check the website or licence terms of use, or copyright/permissions section, to determine if the image is available for your intended use and for any information on specific attribution requirements. If no specific attribution requirements are indicated then, at minimum, the following citation information should be provided:
Author/Creator, title of image, source (i.e., URL to the image webpage OR name of the licensed image database).
Many publication style guides have more specific and detailed requirements for citing images from digital databases. Consult the appropriate style guide for your field or discipline.
When considering using an image from a website, you should establish whether the website owner is the copyright holder, or has permission to use and share that image.
Citing images from print and electronic publications
A citation for an image from a published source requires, at minimum, the author/creator of the image, the image title and the source of the image. The general format would be:
Author/Creator, title of image, source, e.g. book/book chapter, journal article.
Many publication styles, including APA, Harvard, Chicago, have more specific and detailed requirements for citing images from all manner of print and electronic publications. Consult the appropriate style guide for your field or discipline.
Citing images licensed under Creative Commons Licences
All Creative Commons (CC) Licences require the user to attribute the copyright owner/author/creator of the work being used, but how that attribution can be provided is flexible depending on the type of licence and the medium in which the work is being used.
Detailed guides on attributing CC licensed material:
Marking your work with a CC Licence, Creative Commons wiki.
Best practices for attribution, Creative Commons wiki.
Attributing CC Materials, Creative Commons Australia.
If you are licensing your own work under a Creative Commons Licence, it is likely that the copyright owner of third party material you wish to include in your work will not readily give you permission for their material to be released to the world under the Creative Commons Licence you have chosen for your own work.
However, if they have given you permission and you have marked their work with the credit line they have prescribed, e.g. “all rights reserved”, to ensure that end-users are aware of any distinction between the permission/licence you have been granted and the terms of the Creative Commons Licence you have chosen for the release of your own work, your work under a CC Licence should be prefaced with the wording ‘Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons [ ] Licence.
Websites are, by definition, distributed worldwide, so you must consider copyright issues relating to any use of content prepared or owned by others, i.e. third parties.
Third-party content includes any material under copyright protection, including others’ text/prose, photographs, videos, films, sound recordings, illustrations, tables, charts, diagrams, maps, and screenshots.
You should request permission from a copyright owner when neither law nor licence permit you to use a third party extract or item in the way you wish in a website.
All of which means that you will need to ask for permission unless you can rely on one or more of the following:
- your use of the work is permitted by one or more of the copyright exceptions in UK copyright law, which include “fair dealing copyright exceptions” such as use of a short extract/quotation from published material as part of a critical commentary (‘criticism or review’). (For further information on copyright exceptions, see "Are there any exceptions to copyright...?")
- the work has been released under an open access licence that permits your intended use, e.g. Creative Commons licences or other open access licence, e.g. Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY Licence), or the UK Government’s Open Government Licence (see "What are the Creative Commons Licences?")
- the work is already covered by a licence from the copyright owner that may permit your use, e.g. website or other platform terms of use that permit your intended use. To note, permission granted in a site or platform solely for ‘personal, non-commercial use’ does not allow upload to intranets such as Moodle or to publicly accessed websites or social media.
- the work you wish to use is in the public domain, i.e. copyright in the work has expired and is no longer protected by copyright. (See "How long does copyright last?".)
- providing links to websites, including YouTube and other videos. You may provide a link to any publicly accessible page of any website, unless you suspect that the material posted on the site is infringing or otherwise unlawful. (See "Can I provide links to materials...?")
As a guide, unless one of the above exceptions apply, you should always seek permission for:
- Substantial sections of text/long quotations, i.e. quotations beyond fair dealing limits require formal permission from the copyright owner.
- Epigraphs
- Any extract from a poem/song lyrics
- Any extract from an unpublished work
There are no statutory fair dealing exceptions for quoting from unpublished material, including others’ unpublished theses or dissertations. Which means that you may not use quotations from unpublished works, including for the fair dealing purpose of criticism or review, without the permission of the copyright owner.
Also, unpublished works often have longer terms of copyright than other materials, most in the UK are in-copyright until the end of the calendar year 2039.
- Photographs, images of artwork, film/television/video clips and stills
Obtaining formal written permission is strongly advised.
If using your own photographs or videos, you need to obtain consent from individuals who feature in your photographs or videos, and from owners/copyright holders or images/objects such as artwork in your photographs or videos, and from location owners for your photography or filming on their property.
- Figures, illustrations, charts and tables, maps
The owner of copyright in an image or figure may be unrelated to that of the article or other source it appears in, so establish the copyright owner or holder by checking the credit/acknowledgements line.
Exact reproduction of a previously published figure requires permission.
Permission is required from the copyright holder if you are adapting or redrawing a previously published figure, e.g. copying the figure and replacing some data.
Redrawing a previously published figure entirely, i.e. creating a new and unique figure with new data, does not require permission. Any source data or factual information must be credited.
If it is difficult to assess whether your use is an adaptation or a new figure, the default position must be that if you begin with a figure from another publication, it is an adaptation and permission must be obtained.
- Sound/music recordings/sheet music
- Trademarks, e.g. logos.
- Brand images, advertisements/publicity material
- Sources found on the Internet
You need to be careful when contemplating use of images or other material found online. Almost all material on the Internet and in social media is protected by copyright, including content obtained from websites, blog posts, Google Images, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Wikipedia, etc. Often images and other material are posted without the knowledge or permission of the copyright owner.
Ignorance of copyright offers no defence against unauthorised use of copyright material and taking down offending material upon notice from copyright owners is almost always insufficient to forestall payment to the copyright owner of a licence fee for use of the content and a penalty fee for the unauthorised use or incurring legal action to do so.
So, if in doubt, seek permission, or provide a link to the material, but ensure that each link opens in a new window and that you acknowledge the source of the link.
- Your journal articles - Material that is your copyright may be uploaded to a website, but if your material has been published commercially, you should check your publishing agreement to see whether its terms and conditions permit worldwide distribution on the Internet. For journal articles, many publishers do not allow PDF versions to be used, but may allow pre-prints or post-prints or re-publishing/re-use after specific embargo periods. Should you not have your publishing agreement to hand, Sherpa Romeo outlines author re-use permitted by major journal publishers.
If your material contains extracts from third party works, e.g. others’ diagrams, charts, tables etc., for online use you must ensure that you have a worldwide licence for Internet use from the copyright owner/holder.
You need to be careful when contemplating use of images or other material found online. Unless marked otherwise, most material on the Internet and in social media, blogs, Google Images, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. is protected by copyright in the same way as print or other media material, including text, photographs, illustrations, charts, diagrams, graphs, tables, music, films, videos, blog posts, e-mails and other content. And, often images and other material are posted without the knowledge or permission of the copyright owner.
If found on a website, you should check the website’s or material’s ‘Terms of Use’ or ‘Copyright’ or ‘Legal’ section to confirm what conditions apply to use of the website’s content or material, including whether educational use is explicitly prohibited. Some websites or material owners do allow non-commercial educational use of their materials.
If what you want to use is not available open access, e.g. by Creative Commons Licence that permits your intended use, or is not in the public domain, or does not fall into one of the copyright exceptions or under a licence permitting your use, you will have to obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Ignorance of copyright offers no defence for unauthorised use of copyright material and taking down offending material upon notice from copyright owners is almost always insufficient to forestall payment to the copyright owner of a licence fee for use of the content and a penalty fee for the unauthorised use or incurring legal action to do so.
If in doubt:
- seek permission OR
- provide a link to the material, but ensure that each link opens in a new window and that you acknowledge the source of the link OR
- especially with images, seek out material that is offered for free or easier to use, e.g. released by Creative Commons Licence, but always double-check the licensing conditions of individual items, and always provide attribution (and licence terms if CC-licensed) when reusing any image.
Creative Commons (CC) Search
CC Search searches for CC-licensed and public domain content in a variety of media, Google Images, Flickr, Pixabay etc. and across a number of platforms.
Flickr Creative Commons Search
Flickr CC Search allows you to search all Flickr image sources for images that are either CC-licensed or in the public domain.
Xpert
University of Nottingham’s attribution facility “allows you to enter a search term and find images that are stored in Flickr that are either in the public domain or licenced with a creative commons licence. You can then select from the range of images that are presented, and choose to have a licence statement added to the bottom of the image. You can then save the image, or export it to PowerPoint.”
Flickr: The Commons
‘No known copyright restrictions’ release of participating cultural institution photo archives’ collections.
Vimeo
Creative Commons-licensed videos search.
Wikimedia Commons
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You do, yes. Images by photography, video or film and sound recordings of individuals are categorised under UK data protection legislation as personal data and in some circumstances as more sensitive types of data worthy of special protections. Any personal information about these individuals, commonly their contact details, is also considered personal data. As such, images and recordings of individuals and their personal details must be handled and accorded the same protection as any other personal data.
The University’s Information Compliance Office provides an overview of UK data protection legislation and principles and data subject rights, including the University’s Data Protection Policy here.
Those responsible for arranging photography or filming or sound recordings on behalf of the University, whether on University or College premises or at an external event, must ensure that consent is obtained in advance from each individual to be photographed or filmed who might be clearly recognisable from an image or from their spoken word or voice.
If practicable, prior to taking images or recordings, a cover letter should be sent to the individual along with the appropriate Consent Form to be agreed and signed by the individual or parent or legal guardian as applicable. The letter should explain the purpose of the request for consent and the proposed use of the images or other recordings in simple terms and include the name and contact details of the event organiser.
Consent Forms
The Consent Forms below, Contributor (18 and over) and Parent/Guardian, are for use in filming/recording University events and activities by University staff who are involved in organising events or activities during which photography or filming and/or sound recording may take place and where the purpose or use of the images of individuals and/or sound recordings of their spoken word or voice, by publication or other dissemination by the University including on University websites, is to promote an event or activity at the University, e.g. upload to a Faculty or Departmental website.
The Consent Forms have a link to ‘How we use your personal information (general)’, which provides information about data protection to those who grant permission to be photographed or filmed at a University event, including their right to be informed of the uses that may be made of their personal data, the right to access their personal data and the right to erasure of their personal data/withdrawal of consent. In the event that the Consent Forms are made available to participants in print form only and with no opportunity for them access the link above, the Activity/Event Organiser should have copies of the ‘How we use your personal information (general)’ page to hand for participants to read prior to signing the appropriate Consent Form.
The Forms are not to be used:
- for medical/clinical consent purposes and may not to serve as a substitute for NHS Trust or other medical/clinical care photography consent or patient consent forms
- for obtaining “informed consent” in research projects, e.g. in fieldwork research, oral history interviews, for which advice and approval should be sought in the first instance from the appropriate Research Ethics Committee, further information at:
Research Strategy Office
Research Integrity
Research Ethics
Additional information on seeking informed consent from research subjects:
the University of Oxford.
the School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS), University of London.
- where payment is to be made to the subject of the image or recording
- where the inclusion of images and/or recordings in a commercial product or service is contemplated, especially use of images and/or recordings of a child, for which a Child Performance Licence may need to obtained from the relevant Local Authority prior to photography or filming or recording otherwise, in addition to school and parental/guardian consent in writing. Guidance is available from the National Network for Children in Employment & Entertainment (NNCEE).
- by Colleges or University societies and clubs or for personal website use without appropriate amendments to the Forms.
- other than by the University for University purposes.
Although each University Faculty or Department or unit will have their own procedures regarding publishing and uploading materials on web pages within its domain, the organiser(s) of the event/activity where photographs or filming or other recordings are to take place should ensure the following:
- Invitations or registration forms to events or activities alert attendees or participants that photography, filming and/or sound recording of the event or activity will take place.
- Consent Forms are signed, e.g. from University lecturers, guest lecturers, researchers, students, panellists, speakers, moderators, parents of children under 18 and vulnerable adults aged 18 or older attending the University event. Regarding visiting dignitaries, although reasonably expected to allow images and recordings of themselves to be taken at University events and activities in the course of their official duties, it is advisable to extend the courtesy of an appropriate statement in the letter of invitation.
- Location Perimeter Signs are in place at locations where photography, filming and/or sound recording is to take place.
- Images, recordings and consent forms are stored securely and accessed and/or used on behalf of the University only by those with the authority to do so. Personal contact details of those granting consents should never be provided to third parties.
Images or recordings of children or vulnerable adults
The University’s Children and Adults at Risk Safeguarding Policy, provided by the Human Resources Division for University staff, workers, volunteers or students in contact with children and vulnerable adults, contains provisions 4.3 regarding "photography of children for publication". The Policy defines a child as any person under 18 years of age and provides examples of vulnerable adults aged 18 or older.
Those responsible for arranging photography or filming or interview recordings on behalf of the University, whether on University or College premises or at an external event, must ensure that consent is obtained from the parent or legal guardian of any child under the age of 18 or vulnerable adult aged 18 or older clearly recognisable in an image or from their spoken word or voice.
Providing the name and image of a child or vulnerable adult in any form of publication, especially on the publicly-accessed Internet, allows for the possibility that they might be identified, contacted and subjected to inappropriate and/or unsolicited attention. Under no circumstances should the University include full names or contact details such as e-mail addresses, home addresses and telephone numbers of any child or vulnerable adult that appears in a photograph or video/film or is the subject of a sound recording.
When considering the use of images of children or vulnerable adults, general shots of group activities rather than close-up images should be used. The broad rule when using images of children or vulnerable adults: If the child or vulnerable person is named, avoid using their image. If the image is used, avoid naming the child or vulnerable adult.
Only images of children and vulnerable adults dressed appropriately should be used, keeping in mind that children can be identified through badges, logos or emblems on sweatshirts etc. It may be necessary to pixellate/blur such identifying features prior to use of the images.
If an external person or organisation is commissioned by the University to photograph or video the event/activity, those responsible for arranging the event or activity must ensure that the external photographer or video/film or sound recording person is briefed about the University’s obligations under data protection legislation and ensure that the appropriate Consent Forms are signed by the parents or legal guardians of children and vulnerable adults that may appear in any images or recordings.
Consent from small and large groups
It is advisable to prominently display notices outside areas where photography or filming is to take place, so that those wishing to avoid the area may do so. If appropriate, such warnings should also be included in printed programmes or other publicity material for the event or activity.
For large outdoor crowd shots in public places where individuals are not readily identifiable, if there is no apparent reason to think that any person would expect privacy in such a setting, photography and/or filming may take place without seeking individual or group consent.
In formal settings such as lecture hall presentations, if at all possible prior to the commencement of the presentation, an announcement should be made that photography or filming is to take place at the event as the case may be, and that the film or recording may be made available in all manner of media, including on the Internet, in order to provide an opportunity for those not wishing to be photographed or filmed to move to an area where photography or recording is not expected or leave the venue.
If filming is to take place, the ‘oral consent’ given by those remaining (nodding of heads and general acknowledgement) should also be filmed. The arranger of the event or the photographer video/film or sound recordist should attest to this ‘verbal consent’ given by the group, noting it in a ‘consent and copyright diligence file’ that should contain signed Consent Forms (from presenters for instance) and other documentation for the event.
Commissioning external photographers or film/video production companies
In UK copyright law, copyright in commissioned images or video or sound recordings is not automatically owned by the commissioning party. To own copyright in commissioned photography or film in order to use the photographs or video/film without restriction, commissioned professional photographers or video/filming and sound recording persons or their companies must assign, i.e. transfer ownership, copyright in the images and/or sound recordings to the University.
For this purpose, the Letter of Agreement for Professional Services – Photography/Filming/Recording Commission, may be used, with advice available in the first instance from Procurement Services, Finance Division.
Commissioning photography/video/film is subject to the procedures for the procurement of goods and services set out in the Purchasing procedures of the University’s Financial Regulations and the Procurement Services section of the Financial Procedures Manual.
Further information is available from the Legal Services here (Raven access).
Should the event or activity be photographed or filmed by an external person or organisation commissioned by the University, those responsible for arranging the event or activity must ensure that the external photographer or filming/recording crew is briefed about the University’s obligations under data protection legislation and ensure that the appropriate Consent Forms are obtained from those appearing in any taken photographs or video/films or who are the subjects of sound recordings.
If an assignment of copyright in the commissioned image(s) and/or sound recording(s) from the photographer or filming company is not achievable, a licence for use by the University rather than an assignment in Letter of Agreement for Professional Services – Photography/Filming/Recording Commission may be negotiated with the person or company who has been commissioned to provide images or recordings for use by the University.
Such a licence to replace assignment provisions in the Letter of Agreement for Professional Services – Photography/Filming/Recording Commission must ensure that the University acquires full rights to use the photographs or video footage without any restrictions whatsoever. Legal wording to that effect:
“The Contractor hereby grants to the University a perpetual licence for the full term of copyright and all renewals and extensions to copy, reproduce, adapt, publish, distribute and issue copies, rent or lend, perform or show, and communicate the work to the public and further license the exploitation of the [Photographs OR Video] or any part thereof in all material forms or formats or in any and all media for any purpose it may determine in its sole discretion”.
Consent Forms etc.
Contributor Consent & Release Form
- to be personally signed by the adult person in the photograph(s), video/film and/or sound recording(s) to be taken by the University, granting to the University the right to make available and communicate the image(s) or recording(s) of the Event/Project and digital material contributed by the Contributor to the Event/Project to the public in all platforms and all media, including online and in social media, for University non-commercial educational and promotional purposes.
- if a recording is not to be made available in the first instance in a restricted intranet to participants in the Event/Activity, please delete the section highlighted in yellow.
- not to be used for filming/recording by external production companies/broadcasters for their own productions/broadcasts, e.g. BBC television documentary.
Parent/Guardian Contributor Consent & Release Form
- to be personally signed by the parent or guardian in legal charge on behalf of the child (under 18) or vulnerable adult in the photograph(s), video/film and/or sound recording(s) to be taken by the University, granting to the University the right to make available and communicate the image(s) or recording(s) of the Event/Project and digital material contributed by the Contributor to the public in all platforms and in all media, including online and in social media, for University non-commercial educational and promotional purposes.
- if a recording is not to be made available in the first instance in a restricted intranet to participants in the Event/Activity, please delete the section highlighted in yellow.
- not to be used for filming/recording by external production companies/broadcasters for their own productions/broadcasts, e.g. BBC television documentary.
Location Perimeter Notice for photography/filming to take place; printed warning
- an example of signage to be adapted for posting at the perimeter of the location of an event or activity where many people are expected, warning attendees or participants that photography, filming and/or sound recording may take place and the images and recordings of persons or persons at the event may be made publicly available on the Internet and in social media by the University. The signs should be visibly posted at entrances to and around the perimeter of an area where photography and filming may occur.
- an example of a notice to be adapted for use in a programme or invitation to an event or activity, warning attendees or participants that photography, filming and/or sound recording may take place and the images and recordings of persons at the event may be made publicly available on the Internet and in social media by the University.
There is:
Letter of Agreement for Professional Services – Photography/Filming Commission
Purchasing requirements to be followed are set out in the University’s Financial Procedures and Regulations. There is a quick outline and links at Legal Services pages here (Raven access).
University of Cambridge Location Filming Agreement
- for third party filming at the University, in lieu of ‘location agreements’ often suggested by production companies, broadcasters or others wishing to film at the University, e.g. for a television documentary.
- ‘Location Agreements’ do not deal with consents/permissions from individuals who may agree to appear in, for example, a television documentary programme. The University’s Intellectual Property Rights Policy acknowledges that, unless agreed otherwise, University students and staff own copyright in works they generate in the course of their studies or employment, which would include appearances and material they may make available as an interviewee or commentator in a third party production. Accordingly, students and staff are personally responsible for any contribution they may wish to make in a third party production and for any legal agreement/consent/release they may be asked to agree to and sign.