Copyright is an automatic, time-limited legal right that arises when an original intellectual property (e.g. a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work) has been created in any format.
Most works are covered by Copyright for a set time period, e.g. 70 years after the death of the author. Unless you know for sure otherwise, always assume that a third party work you want to copy, share or re-use is still in copyright.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no general copyright exception for Educational Use – but rather a combination of exceptions and approaches that cover the use of copyright works in education - so we advise working through the steps below to be compliant.
Has its copyright expired? As a first step, you can check copyright duration for different types of works before proceeding. If you are sure its copyright has expired, then you can use it, but remember copyright may also apply to the format (the layout of the text on a page) as well as the content.
Is the work available under an open license, such as CC-BY? If so, you may still be able to copy, share or reuse that provided you abide by its specific open license terms and subject to proper acknowledgement or attribution.
Open licensing provides a simple, standardised way for authors to grant copyright permissions to their creative work, providing clarity around precisely what is permitted and what is not. The most well known as the suite of Creative Commons licenses, sometimes referred to as "CC-BY licensing" for short. However "CC-BY" (a reuse By Attribution license) is actually just one of many options available.
A handy 'at a glance' summary table is available or you can read a description of the main ones below:
If the work is using CC licensing, a standard abbreviation symbol will be shown which provides shorthand for what is allowed and not allowed.
CC-BY requires proper acknowledgement or attribution
CC-BY SA stands for Share Alike, permitting others to remix, adapt, and build upon the work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author and license in their new creations under the identical terms.
CC-BY NC stands for Non-Commercial, permitting others to remix, adapt, and build upon the work non-commercially, again as long as the author is acknowledged.
CC-BY ND stands for No Derivatives, permitting you to reuse the work for any purpose, including commercially; however, it cannot be shared with others in an adapted form, and the author must be credited.
These Attributes may also be combined together so it is important to familiarise yourself with all the permutations to be sure you are fully complaint with the intended reuse terms.
All staff and students may make photocopies under the terms of the CLA Higher Education License and make copies available for others on the course or in your seminar group for example but students may not make digital copies. For more details, see Notice for Display.
Use the CLA Check Permissions Tool to see if the work you want to use is covered without having to seek permission from the owner. Further help in understanding the results from the CLA Check Permissions Tool.
If the work you want to reuse is covered, the license permits typically reuse or copying from works owned, or subscribed to, by UEA or its Library but not a fellow student's or lecturer's own copy.
As a rule of thumb, the proportion of a work that can be copied is whichever is the greater of 10% or
one chapter of a book
one article of a journal issue
one paper of one set of conference proceedings
one report of a single case from a report of judicial proceedings
one scene from a play
one short story or one poem or one play of not more than 10 pages in an anthology of short stories, poems or plays
Using the work under this license will save you time but remember to comply with the concepts of fair dealing and sufficient attribution as well.
The less of a work that you use, the more likely it is that your use may be considered fair.
Provided you have only made a single copy of a limited (fair) amount of a copyright work which is directly relevant to your studies, and provided you acknowledge that work in your finished work, you are unlikely to be infringing anyone's copyright. So if any of the photocopied work is reproduced as part of of your assignment, this must be supported by sufficient acknowledgement and attribution as well.
Moe details can be found on the poster CLA HE Notice for Display displayed nearby every photocopier on campus.
You are not required to delete copies you have made on completion of your work; however any copies should not be distributed or sold.
The important thing to note here is that student copying is limited here to photocopying – it’s only academic or administrative staff who can make and distribute scans under the CLA License.
If the work is not available under an open license or the CLA license, UK Copyright Law includes some Statutory Exceptions to Copyright, that allow limited use without permission from the owner, depending on the type of use you propose.
Two of the most useful Exceptions are for Non-commercial research & private study [Section 29] and for Illustration for instruction (Teaching) [Section 32].
Checking these out could save you time but remember the concepts of fair dealing and sufficient acknowledgement and attribution apply to most of the Exceptions if you are going to be reusing any of the work in your assignments.
How much can you copy under a Statutory Exception?
Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the amount that can be copied is not precisely specified but must take into account the concept of fair dealing. The less of a work that you use, the more likely it is that your use may be considered fair, so just use as much as you need and no more than you might have been able to use if the terms of the CLA license had applied (up to 10%).
Non-commercial research & private study [S.29]
You are allowed to copy limited extracts of works without permission from the owner when the use is non-commercial research or private study, but you must be genuinely studying or researching.
In assessing whether your use of the work is permitted or not, you must assess if there is any financial impact on the copyright owner because of your use. Where the impact is not significant, the use may be acceptable under the principle of fair dealing.
When a work is reproduced as part of research, this must be supported by sufficient acknowledgement and attribution as well.
Illustration for Instruction (teaching) [S.32)
The Illustration for Instruction (Teaching) Exception covers minor uses, such as displaying a few lines of poetry on an interactive whiteboard, are permitted, but uses which would undermine sales of teaching materials are not. So if you are intending to provide readings for your students in the form of coursepacks or digitised copies of the work, you must use the CLA Higher Education License option in Step 4 instead.
This Illustration for Instruction (Teaching) exception also covers the showing of copyright works that may be on video, DVD, etc., for educational purposes provided the audience is limited to lecturers and students and others directly connected with the activities of the establishment, e.g. a film screening.
Exams [S.32]
Use of the work for exam purposes works in the same way as the Illustration for instruction (Teaching) exception provided your intended use is illustrative and non-commercial. Remember fair dealing and sufficient acknowledgement and attribution apply.
Performing, playing or showing work [S.34]
There is an additional Exception Performing, playing or showing work in course of activities of educational establishment [Section 34] which covers the showing of copyright works that may be on video, DVD, etc., for educational purposes provided the audience is limited to lecturers and students and others directly connected with the activities of the establishment, e.g. a film screening.
If you need to make a film available for on demand viewing rather than a screening, contact your contact your Academic Librarian to discuss options.
Incidental inclusion [S. 31]
Copyright in a work is not infringed by its incidental inclusion in an another work, such as another work in the background of the work you are intending to use, reuse or copy. An example might be an image on an unrelated poster on a wall appearing in the background of the main work you are intending to use.
Quotation, criticism, or review [S. 30]
Use for criticism, review or quotation is allowed for any type of copyright work. Remember sufficient acknowledgement and attribution apply.
Take special care of the quotation exception. Whilst there is no specified limit for the quotation, you need to make a judgement about whether the amount of the work you are quoting is no more than is needed for the intended purpose. Under fair dealing usually only a part may be legitimately used.
News and news reporting [S. 30]
Limited use of a work for the purpose of reporting current events is allowed for any type of copyright work other than a photograph. Remember fair dealing and sufficient acknowledgement and attribution apply.
Though not part of the Exceptions, UEA subscribes to the Newspaper Licencing Agency (NLA) Agreement that covers photocopying from UK national newspapers and some local newspapers. The licence covers multiple copying and the circulation or display on campus of photocopies by all members of the University, and all educational uses of the material copied.
Caricature parody or pastiche [S. 30A]
This Exception permits people to use limited amounts of copyright material without the owner’s permission for the purpose of parody, caricature or pastiche. Remember fair dealing and sufficient acknowledgement and attribution apply.
Text and data mining [S.29A]
An exception to copyright exists which allows researchers to make copies of any copyright material for the purpose of computational analysis...
provided that you already have the right to read the work, e.g. through your own or library subscription
provided that the purpose is for non-commercial research
The Exception for Text and data mining for non-commercial research trumps any publisher's contract restrictions provided you already have access via a Library subscription. This is a complex area though so we strongly recommend reading through these Guidelines on Text and data mining from Copyrightuser.org. Further changes to this Exception are under consultation.
For further advice about specific databases, contact the Library's Digital Library and Content Team.
UEA has a subscription to the Educational Recording Agency ERA Licence which enables staff and students in educational establishments to legally make off-air recordings or copies of TV and radio programmes for educational use provided the broadcaster is one of ERA's Broadcaster Members. It does not cover the copying of recordings or programmes from on-demand services.
The license enables you to share programmes or clips and embed clips in presentations without permission from the rights holder provided that they are uploaded on a secure server and only accessible to your lecturer and other students on the course.
If you are looking to access existing recordings, check out our subscription to Box of Broadcasts which allows UEA staff and students to search its archive of over 2.2 million broadcasts as well as record programmes from over 75 free-to-air channels under the terms of the ERA license.
If none of the above steps have worked, then as a last resort you can contact the rights holder directly to seek permission but his can be a complex and long-drawn out process which we will not necessarily be able to support you with. Another option is to find an alternative third party work to use. For further details, see Seeking permission (link to correct section).
