Copyright

For a more in depth look at the different aspects of Copyright and how it applies to different resources, please see our Copyright Topic Guide.

• It is automatic and does not require a © symbol
• Work is original and is recorded in some way (written down, painted, composed etc).
• Covers the following types of works: original literary, typographical, dramatic, music or artistic, sound recordings, films and broadcasts.
• Ownership generally rests with the creator(s) of the work or their employer.
• Duration is generally for the life of the creator(s) plus 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last creator dies.

Limited copying of protected work is permitted for:

• Education
• Non-commercial research

This is subject to ‘Fair Dealing’ proportions. For more information on 'Fair Dealing' please refer to the useful links tab on this page.

 Further copying is permitted when the material is:

• Covered by University licences
• Out of copyright (expired)
• In the Public domain (CC)
• Under your own copyright 

Copying is allowed under one of the various licences the University holds, as shown below.

The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) Licence

The licence covers most printed books, journals and magazines published in the UK, plus many published overseas and a large number of digital publications provided that the copying does not exceed the following limits:

• One whole chapter from a book.

• Two whole articles from a journal issue.

• One short story, poem or play (not exceeding 10 pages) from an anthology.

• One whole scene from a play.

• One whole paper from a set of conference proceedings.

• One whole report of a single case from a volume of judicial proceedings.

Or 10% of the total publication, whichever is the greater.

The Educational Recording Agency (ERA) licence

• The ERA licence permits recordings of free to air radio, television and cable programmes. Podcasts are not included. A recording can be made on campus or at home, providing its re-showing is for educational purposes only.
• This licence is for UK use only.

The Design and Arts Society (DACS) licence

• The DACS licence enables educational institutions to reproduce images of 'works of artistic craftsmanship' as slides, under 'blanket' permission. Revenue from the scheme is distributed by DACS to the rights holders. The slides produced are solely for the educational use of staff and students of the University.

The Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) Licence

• The Basic Licence allows copying from UK national newspapers, plus five regional titles. These copies can be shared with students in the course of their academic study.
• Click on this link to view the list of UK newspaper titles covered by the NLA licence -  NLA Licence Title List UK.
• The licence covers the user to:
• Print articles
• Photocopy articles (for study packs for instance)
• Scan and upload to an internal and secure intranet or VLE 
• Email copies of articles to students and staff.

• CLA good practice guide
• Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
• Intellectual Property (Government Portal)
• Exceptions To Copyright - Education & Teaching  - IPO document
• Copyright User
• Creative Commons
• SHERPA/RoMEO - JISC run service - Aggregated Publisher Permissions on Open Access Materials.
• Orphan Works - gov.uk site.
• Fair dealing - brief explanation of this term.

Library and Learning Resources co-ordinate copyright training and compliance for the University.

For copyright help and support contact: Tom Rowley or Nikki Griffin

For digitisation requests or enquiries 

please use our webform or email: digitallibrary@bcu.ac.uk