Copyright information

Copyright is relevant whenever you are creating, copying, or sharing creative work. The use of materials protected by copyright is essential for teaching and research. Educational resources exist in all kinds of formats – in copyright law these are recognised as 'works'.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a form of intellectual property which helps to ensure that a work is not used without permission of the person or organisation that hold the rights, and gives them control over how their work is copied, shared, adapted and reused.

Who owns copyright?

When works are created, the author or creator of the work is usually the copyright owner. However, there are some important exceptions. For works created by employees as part of their role, copyright will usually belong to their employer. Copyright ownership can also be transferred or licensed to another person or organisations, for example, researchers may assign copyright to a publisher.

How long does copyright last?

Copyright protection is automatic and begins as soon as a work is created and recorded in a fixed form e.g. being written down, recorded, or stored in digital format. Works stay protected until the copyright expires, after which time they pass into the public domain.

In the UK, copyright protection generally lasts: 

For written, artistic, musical, or dramatic works, 70 years after the death of the creator (or 70 years after the death of the last of the creative team). 
For films and sound recordings, for 70 years from the date of creation or release.

Copyright exceptions for education and teaching

One of the most important exceptions for education permits the use of any type of work for the purpose of teaching (or as the law puts it: ‘for the sole purpose of illustration for instruction’). This means that copyright in the work is not infringed by an individual teacher or a student as long as they are copying the work to give or receive instruction (or when preparing to give or receive instruction), and the copying is used to illustrate a point about the subject being taught.

Also, the law makes clear that ‘giving or receiving instruction’ allows copying when setting examination questions, communicating questions to students, and answering questions. However, the exception only applies under the following conditions:

The purpose of the use is non-commercial
Where practical, there should be sufficient acknowledgement of authorship of the work
The use of the material is fair.

There is no legal definition of what is fair or unfair in this context. It is an issue ultimately decided by courts depending on a number of factors, such as the amount of the work taken and whether the use would commercially compete with the copyright owner’s exploitation of the material. According to the UK government ‘minor uses, such as displaying a few lines of poetry on an interactive whiteboard, will be permitted, but uses which would undermine sales of teaching materials will still need a licence’. You can find the government’s guide on exceptions to copyright for ‘education and teaching’ here.

Summary of relevant UK copyright exceptions:

Research or Private Study (Section 29): Allows students and researchers to make personal copies of extracts from books and journals, and copy images for non-commercial research or private study.
Quotation (Section 30): Allows anyone to reproduce copyright works for the purpose of quotation where it is fair. This includes presenting extracts from books, journals, and musical works to students.
Accessible Copying (Sections 31A-F): Allows individuals or institutions to provide equal access to copyright works for users with any type of disability. This includes digitising print material, format shifting text to audio, and creating subtitles for videos.
Illustration for Instruction (Section 32): Allows teachers or students to use copyright work in teaching or study where the use is fair. This includes using text, images, music, or video in teaching slides and lecture recordings, and adding content to examination papers.
Educational Performance (Section 34): Allows copyright work to be performed, played, or shown in an educational setting. This includes screening a film in a lecture, playing musical sound recordings in class, and performance of a play in class.
Recording of Broadcasts (Section 35): Allows educational establishments to record TV and radio broadcasts and make them available to students. This underpins the University’s use of the BoB Online TV streaming service.
Making Multiple Copies (Section 36): Allows educational institutions to copy up to 5% of a copyright work and supply multiple copies to students. This includes copying of book extracts not covered by the CLA licence and copying up to 5% of a film or sound recording and making it available to students on Moodle.

(The above content (under the heading 'Copyright exceptions for education and teaching') has been adapted from "Education" by Ruth Soetendorp and Bartolomeo Meletti, licensed under CC BY 4.0.)

Licences

For content not covered by copyright exceptions the University holds a number of licences:

Photocopying and scanning of published material for distribution to students - CLA Licence
Use of audio-visual broadcast material - ERA Plus Licence
Photocopying and scanning of newspaper content - NLA Licence.

Additionally, when identifying materials to use in teaching, you may find resources that are licensed under open licensing schemes such as Creative Commons. Creative Commons licences provide a standardised way to grant the public permission to use creative works under copyright law.

Copyright and Theses

We have copyright information as particularly related to theses available in our theses guide. Topics covered include:

Copyright responsibilities: the difference between the examination and the Library copy of your thesis
Including third-party copyright material in the Library copy of your thesis
Requesting permission from the copyright holder
What happens if copyright permissions cannot be obtained
Further guidance

Support for teaching and research

If you are developing teaching materials, whether for use in-person or online, the library can support and assist with copyright considerations in the following ways:

We have developed several policies related to copyright, which can be viewed on the University’s Policies, procedures and guidance webpages.
The library can create and edit module reading lists, and provide training to colleagues who wish to create or edit their own. We will ensure copyright compliance, and create accessible copies of any materials we are able to digitise. View our Reading Lists guide for more information.

For research purposes, you can request a scan from a book held in the Walter Bower House Library, Martyrs Kirk, or the Psychology Store. We are usually able to supply one chapter, or up to 10% of a book. These scans will be sent directly to your email. These scans are for individual use only. All teaching-related scans can be requested via Reading Lists (see above). View our Scan and Deliver guide for more information.

FAQs and contact

You can view our Copyright FAQs for additional information, or contact us via library@st-andrews.ac.uk with any queries.