Copyright Policy

Copyright protects the creators of intellectual property whilst also recognising the need for use to be made of their works. A generally accepted principle of copyright is that ideas cannot be copyrighted, only the expression of ideas, for example in a published book. Copyright is an automatic right conferred upon the creator of a work, and includes both economic rights (eg the right to licence a manuscript for publication) and moral rights (eg the right to be attributed as the author of a work).

In the UK, copyright lasts for a fixed duration according to the type of material. Under the terms of the 1988 Copyright Act:-

• Copyright in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years from the end of the year in which he/she died.
• Copyright in a film expires 70 years after the end of the year in which the death occurs of the last to survive of the principal director, the authors of the screenplay and dialogue, and the composer of any music specially created for the film.
• Copyright in a sound recording expires 50 years from the end of the year in which it was made or, if released during this time, 50 years from the end of the year of release.

Under the 1988 Copyright Act there are a number of exceptions to copyright protection that allow, for example, single copies of short extracts from a protected work to be made for the purposes of non-commercial research or private study. However these exceptions are extremely limited and the activities of the University would be curtailed if we relied on them alone.

The University holds several copyright licences:-

• CLA Licence for Higher Education (Copyright Licensing Agency)
• ERA Plus Licence (Educational Recording Agency)
• NLA Licence for Higher Education* (Newspaper Licensing Agency)

*Now administered by the CLA.

Yes, as long as each extract meets the conditions of the CLA Licence. The CLA Licence allows multiple photocopies to be made by employees of the University and supplied to other employees or registered students. Note that the CLA Licence places a number of conditions on the making and supply of photocopies:-

• The University must own an original copy of the work being copied
• Works can only be copied up to specified extent limits (the greater of 10% or one journal article/book chapter)
• Some categories of material are excluded from the CLA Licence, including printed music, maps and charts
• Some works are excluded from the Licence. The CLA provide a search engine that allows you to check whether a particular work is covered.
• A printed course pack should not constitute a work that could be substituted for a published work.
• Multiple print copies "shall not exceed the number needed to ensure that each recipient of instruction or student and each teacher has one Paper Copy".
• During a CLA compliance audit, a module leader might be required to give the CLA a "list of course packs created during a term" and "a sample of paper copies from course packs".

Yes, as long as each extract meets the conditions of the CLA Licence. Digitisation requests are now made directly through the University’s Resource List Management system. Please see instructions in the 'Digitisation for teaching and learning' section, above.

Library staff will check your requests against the various terms of the Licence. Where possible, a link to a CLA-compliant scan will be provided.

Please note that in certain circumstances it will not be possible for us to supply a scan. For example if a work is excluded from the Licence, or if you have asked us to copy a greater amount of a work than the Licence permits (as with photocopies, the 'extent limit' is the greater of 10% or one journal article/book chapter).

There may also be a delay if the Library needs to purchase an original copy of your requested extract. It is a condition of the Licence that the University must hold original copies of scanned works. 

No, academic staff must not personally make scans and upload them into Ultra. In common with many universities, BSU only allows “designated persons” to prepare scans, who have received training in CLA processes. This helps ensure we are compliant with the complex terms of the Licence. The University’s copyright policy states that “The making and distribution of digital copies by anyone other than designated persons will be treated by the University as unauthorised copying.”

Yes, the CLA licence allows the copying of "disembedded images" for teaching purposes (images with no accompanying block of text) without any need to report this copying to the CLA. BSU employees can therefore make these copies themselves. The usual restrictions of the CLA Licence apply, and artists / photographers should be credited. 

In addition to this, there are other sources of images that can be legally copied, including:-

• Bridgeman Education (a Library database subscription)
• Google Images Advanced Search (limit to “free to use or share” results)
• Flickr Creative Commons
• morgueFile
• Windows Clip Art

Note that such resources will still have licence conditions that may, for example, require attribution to the original creator.

Printed music cannot be copied under the CLA Licence because it is an “excluded category”. However:-

• The Music Publishers’ Association’s Code of Fair Practice allows copying under certain conditions. Note that this Code of Fair Practice cannot be used or applied unless the copyright owner's name is listed in Appendix C of the Code and on the MPA website. It cannot be used or applied to imported publications.
• The recently amended Section 32 of the 1988 Copyright Act states that "Fair dealing with a work for the sole purpose of illustration for instruction does not infringe copyright in the work". Copies must be made by a person giving or receiving instruction, “accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement”, and the instruction must be for a non-commercial purpose. The Act does not define "fair" but case law suggests that no more than a short extract should be copied. Long-term storage of any extracts, beyond the immediate teaching context, must be avoided.

Generally, yes, but be careful – there may be active copyrights in a work that one might assume is out-of-copyright. For example, although Shakespeare has clearly been dead for longer than 70 years, there will be active typographical copyright in recent editions of his work, lasting for 25 years from the end of the year in which the edition was first published.  Similarly with photographs of artistic work, although the original artistic work may be out of copyright, there may be active copyright in a photograph of that artistic work. These rights are often held by museums and galleries, and in some cases (eg Getty Images) copyright holders actively track the use of infringing copies.

This depends on the detail of the agreement that you made with your publisher - no generalisations can be made. There are normally other copyright holders in the published version of your work. For example, a publisher will hold copyright in the typographical arrangement of the work (ie the layout); photographers or illustrators will often hold copyrights; and you may have written the work with co-authors. In some cases you will need to seek the written permission of your publisher before copies can be made. If you receive permission to copy outside the CLA Licence, it may avoid future misunderstandings if you add a label to your copies explaining the arrangement that has allowed them to be made. Please inform copyright@bathspa.ac.uk so we can keep a record of your agreement.

Following changes in 2014 to the Copyright Act, JISC Legal offered new advice on this matter:-

"Yes - provided the purpose of placing the clips in the VLE is limited to illustration for instruction and the copying is fair in that it does not negatively impact on the market for the original work then the exception permits the copies of the clips being placed in the VLE. This is s.32 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 (CDPA). The use must be non-commercial and sufficiently acknowledged. Who has access to the VLE is a factor to be considered when assessing whether the use is fair. Restricting access to the learners who are enrolled on the particular course will support the contention that the use is fair."

Also note that:-

• "Fair dealing" is a defence, not a guaranteed right to copy. "Fair" is not defined in the Copyright Act.
• Uploading excerpts to YouTube for public viewing would not be considered "instruction".
• Long-term storage of any extracts, beyond the immediate teaching context, should be avoided.

Section 30 of the Copyright Act states that:-

“(1ZA) Copyright in a work is not infringed by the use of a quotation from the work (whether for criticism or review or otherwise) provided that:-

(a) the work has been made available to the public,
(b) the use of the quotation is fair dealing with the work,
(c) the extent of the quotation is no more than is required by the specific purpose for which it is used, and
(d) the quotation is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement (unless this would be impossible for reasons of practicality or otherwise).”

Quotation will not be "fair" if it negatively impacts on the market for the original work. For example, if your draft journal article contains an in-copyright photograph of a painting, a publisher would still have to licence this by paying the copyright holder(s).

There's no automatic legal right that allows copyrighted material to be captured and disseminated through this system. It is the responsibility of each staff member, or visiting lecturer, to make a judgement based upon the 'fair dealing' exceptions to the 1988 Copyright Act, and, in some cases, the provisions made by the University's CLA Licence. These steps will reduce the risk of infringement:-

• Assume that all material on the internet is copyrighted unless there is a licence that explicitly permits re-use (eg Creative Commons)
• Always attribute the work to its original author or creator.
• Wherever possible only use short extracts of published, copyrighted works, and no more than necessary for your instructive purposes.
• Uploading a whole work into Panopto will increase the risk of infringement. For example, the image of an in-copyright artistic work included on a Powerpoint slide. In such cases the Panopto recording should only be uploaded to Ultra for the purposes of instruction. The rights owner may not consider your use "fair" if the recording of a whole 3rd party work is made publicly available on YouTube, as your use may negatively affect their commercial rights.
• The CLA Licence permits "disembedded" images to be copied from licensed works and used for instructive purposes within a VLE. Any surrounding text other than the descriptive caption should be cropped out, otherwise a request for a CLA-compliant scan would need to be placed through the Library's online request form.
• It is more risky to make a recording of 3rd party material publicly available, for example on YouTube. You should ideally clear your republication of the material with the rights owner(s). Once granted, this permission or licence should be noted within the recording. Otherwise you may need to rely on the Copyright Act exception for "criticism, review, quotation and news reporting". Note that this exception rules out the use of 3rd party material for merely decorative purposes.