Library Guides
Copyright
Your guide to complying with copyright law
Copyright is a means of protecting a person’s intellectual property by ensuring that other people do not copy or adapt the material. Copyright protection comes into being when the material is created. As a Higher Education Institution we are required to comply with copyright law through purchasing and adhering to the terms of various licences enabling material to be used for teaching, learning and research.
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) provides a detailed explanation of copyright and other forms of intellectual property such as designs, patents and trademarks at: https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/copyright
Selecting the links on this page constitutes agreement to abide by UK copyright law and the terms and conditions of use as defined by publishers.
Any original written work e.g. novels, poetry, letters, directories, the lyrics of musical works; and so Web pages, email messages, news bulletins etc. will all be examples of literary works protected by copyright . Computer programs are also protected as a literary work.
Dramatic works are distinguished from literary works by the inclusion of spoken words, or described actions.
Includes photographs, sculptures, maps, plans etc. All pictures, images, logos and other graphics on the Web will be protected as artistic works.
All sound recordings are protected by copyright.
Moving images and video clips are protected as films.
It should be clear that in any one Web page there may be many different copyrights for the text, pictures, icons and sounds.
The University is licenced by the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) Ltd., for off-air recording of free to air radio and television programmes as teaching aids. Recordings made must clearly be labelled for educational use only, with labels available from the ERA. Recordings may only be used with registered students. ERA conducts ongoing statistical surveys of recordings in educational establishments and the University may be selected to participate to ensure compliance with the terms of the licence conditions and to provide a record of any recordings made.
The adaptation, alteration or mutilation of a recording is not permitted. This includes the separation of soundtrack from images, the substitution of another commentary, or alteration which would change the original concept of the work. See the ERA website: http://era.org.uk/the-licence for further details.
Permits reprographic copying (onto paper from paper) of multiple copies (see amounts below) by or for the benefit of registered University staff and students.
Permits scanning of printed material. (Does not include electronic downloads - see Copyright and Electronic Journals PDF).
Enables copies to be made only from Licensed Material published in the UK or the Mandating Territories. These include most English-speaking countries and most of Europe apart from items in the List of Excluded Works. Lists of United States Publishers, Mandating Territories and Excluded Works and further detail on the licence is available on the CLA web site: https://www.cla.co.uk/what-is-copyright
Covers copying for all University courses whether in the UK or abroad. However, the license only permits copying or scanning to take place in the UK.
Permitted amounts copied or scanned must not exceed either singly or in aggregate the greater of 10% of any published edition, or
i. in the case of a book one complete chapter;
ii. in the case of an article in an issue of a serial publication or in a set of conference proceedings, one whole article;
iii. in the case of an anthology of short stories or poems one short story or poem not exceeding ten (10) pages in length;
iv. in the case of a published report of judicial proceedings, the entire report of a single case.
There are some limited exceptions to copyright - these do not give rights to use copyright material, they simply state certain activities which do not infringe copyright. These include limited use for non-commercial research and private study. Copyright is infringed where either the whole or a "substantial part" of a work is used without permission, unless it falls within one of the exceptions. A substantial part can mean a "qualitative" significant part. This means that even a small portion of the whole work can still be a "substantial part".>
The EU Copyright Directive "The Harmonisation of Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society (2001/29 EC)" was implemented in the UK at the end of October 2003 by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act and related rights regulations 2003.
One major change is that for "fair dealing". This exemption to the copyright restrictions only now applies for non-commercial purposes. There is no strict definition of what “fair dealing” means but it has been interpreted by the courts on a number of occasions by looking at the economic impact on the copyright owner of the use. Where the economic impact is not significant, the use may count as fair dealing. "Fair dealing" itself is not defined by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act but general guidelines are to follow the limits stated in the CLA licence.
Library services can provided scans from printed books, journals and magazines published in the UK if the book or journal are not on the standard list of exclusions or the list of works excluded from scanning under the Licence as published on the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) website: https://www.cla.co.uk/what-is-copyright
A link to digital content will be distributed via Moodle where collections of materials tailored to a specific course are held. Only students enrolled on the course for which the material has been scanned and the course tutor should have secure authenticated access. The students and the course tutor may download and print out (once only) the scanned material.
Digital copies cannot be stored in an open website, be made available on the publicly accessible internet, or accessed from the library catalogue where delivery is across course boundaries. However, a digital copy can be used by students on more than one course provided that relevant records are kept.
A link to digital copies can also be delivered in an email to students on a course and can be used in presentations.
Only library staff can prepare and distribute digital copies via course collections. Library staff will scan printed materials and the course owner will take responsibility for distributing the hiperlink to the content via Moodle.
If academic staff needs a scan to be used in a different course, they need to send a new request, so a different link under the new course can be produced as part of the CLA data reporting requirements.
Electronic journals are protected by copyright law, in the same way as printed journals. Their use is also usually subject to the terms of a licence agreed between the university Library and the publisher. The Library signs a licence with each publisher which permits certain activities and forbids others. Licence terms may vary from publisher to publisher, but a few general principles are:
Authorised Users, i.e. current staff and registered students of the University of Greenwich, may: print a copy of an article for personal use; download a copy of an article for personal use; send a copy of an article to another authorised user.
Authorised users, i.e. staff and registered students of the University of Greenwich, may: incorporate articles or portions of articles into Course Packs for use at the University of Greenwich (each article or portion thereof should carry appropriate acknowledgement of its source, e.g. author, title, and originally published in ".............." (Journal title).
