Copyright Guide for Teaching

Copyright is a type of intellectual property. It allows the copyright owner to protect against others copying or reproducing their work. Copyright arises automatically when a work that qualifies for protection is created. The work must be original, meaning it needs to originate with the author, who will have used some judgement or skill in its creation.

The main works currently protected by copyright in the UK include:

• Original literary works (such as novels, poems, tables, lists, and computer programmes)
• Original dramatic works
• Original musical works (i.e. the musical notes themselves)
• Original artistic works
• Sound recordings
• Films
• Broadcasts
• Typographical arrangements (i.e. the layout or actual appearance) of published editions

Copyright protects the rights of the creators of intellectual property but also recognising the legitimate need for others to use this material. The main legislation dealing with copyright in the United Kingdom is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 (CPDA 1988) under which copying is prohibited even for teaching purposes unless:

• It is carried out under licence, or
• It is carried out under the fair dealing provisions (exceptions) of the Act, or
• Permission is obtained from the copyright owner.

A number of significant changes to the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act came into force in June and October 2014. Of particular interest to teaching staff are the changes that affect copying for illustration for instruction.  This allows teachers or students to use copyright work in teaching or study where the use fall within 'Fair dealing 'usage. It allows the inclusion of text, images, music or video in teaching slides and lecture recordings and adding content to examination papers.

A list of the all copyright exceptions can be found at Gov.UK

'Fair dealing’ is a concept allowable in UK Copyright Law . Many of the education exceptions rely on this concept of fair dealing and are often referred to as the 'fair dealing exceptions'.  Unlike The CLA ( Copyright Licensing Agency) Higher Education Licence, the amounts that can be copied are not defined. Because  there are no are no defined limits of what is fair, each individual must make a judgment and decide whether their copying is fair if they are relying on 'fair dealing' as their defence. Questions that might help you decide whether the use is fair are:

•  Is the amount copied reasonable and appropriate to the context?
•  Have I copied no more than I need to?
•  Does the copying negatively affect sales of the work?
•  Have I acknowledged the work appropriately?

Unless there is a specific reason why you cannot acknowledge the sources, there must always be sufficient acknowledgment of the copyright owner and source of the material if the use is to be considered fair.

Fair dealing is a UK legal term and allows copying of copyright works without permissions. Fair use is the US legal term that allows copying under certain conditions under US Law. Fair dealing will always involve a degree of risk assessment on the part of the person using copyright material.

The CLA ( Copyright Licencing Agency) has a mandate from publishers, authors and visual artists to offer collective licences on their behalf. The Higher education (HE) CLA licence provides annual blanket permissions to copy and reuse content from print and digital publications covered by its licence . It covers:

• Sharing copies with students and staff;
• Storing copies on your intranet;
• Copying up to one article, chapter or 10% of the total, whichever is greater;
• Copying  publications from the UK plus 38 international territories.

Not all published works are covered by the CLA Higher Education Licence. The following categories of works are excluded:

• Printed music (including the words);
• Maps and charts;
• Newspapers;
• Any work on which the copyright owner has expressly and prominently stipulated that it may not be copied under a CLA licence: workbooks, workcards or assignment sheets.

In addition to these excluded categories there are lists of excluded works and specific US titles that are not covered by the CLA licence. The CLA have a developed a useful Check Permissions Tool which can be used to check whether a specific book is covered by the licence.

The licence allows the library to offer a Scanning for Teaching Service whereby PDFs of book chapters and journal articles can be added to the Leganto reading lists in the MLS. There are limits to the amount  of copyright material that can be scanned  and these are listed below. Under the terms of our licence,  Library staff carry out all the licensing checks and provide a link to the scan in the Module reading list in  My Learning Space (MLS) . Our licence does not allow teaching staff to scan book chapters or journal articles and add these to Leganto or MLS. 

Limits for scanning under CLA HE licence: 

• in the case of a book, one (1) complete chapter;
• in the case of an article in an issue of a serial publication or in a set of conference proceedings, two (2) whole articles in any single
  issue or (except for any CCC Electronic-Rights Works), where the issue, or a substantial part of it, is dedicated to a particular theme, any number of articles dealing with that particular theme;
• in the case of an anthology of short stories or poems, one (1) short story or poem not exceeding ten (10) pages in length; and
• in the case of a published report of judicial proceedings, the entire report of a single case;

For Digital Material that is not made available or otherwise structured as a conventional book, journal, magazine or other periodical
or where the Digital Material is not divided into distinct sections identifiable as the equivalent of a book chapter or of an article in a
journal, magazine or other periodical, the Licensee shall ensure that copying is limited to small extracts that are equivalent to the limits
set out above, at all times bearing in mind the principle  that no copying shall substitute for the purchase of original Licensed Material.

In addition the scanned copy must be made from:

• The original book or journal and a copy of this must be held by the University.
• Material which was originally published in the UK or US with the exception of publishers who have not signed up to the licence. 
• Materials supplied from the British Library using their copyright fee paid materials. 

Material that is already available electronically in the Library will not normally be scanned under our CLA licence. Instead, a link to the  online article or chapter in the Module reading list should be added.

Yes, Library Services offer a scanning service  for teaching that allows PDFs of book chapters and journal articles to be added to module reading lists. This service ensures compliance with copyright laws and the CLA HE licence. Only material that is covered by the licence can be scanned and there are restrictions on how much content can be copied and who can make the scans. The licences does NOT allow scans to be made by staff and uploaded to their reading lists. 

For full details on how to use this service, including what can be scanned, who is authorised to scan, how to request scans, and how to use scanned materials in multiple reading lists is available on the Scanning for teaching service.

There are many sources of information including videos and images on the internet which are created under licences such Creative Commons Licenses that allow the content to be reused and in some cases adapted for re-use. Most of the most commonly used search engines have in-built tools which allow you to filter your search results to include only free-to-use images and some have been developed specifically to facilitate access to material that can be re-used  with limited or no restrictions.  You can use  Wikimedia Commons or the Creative Commons Search to search for free content in the public domain and/or under Creative Commons licenses. Information and guidance on finding images is available on the Library's Images guide.

The CLA licence also permits 'disembedded' images to be copied from licensed works and used for instructive purposes within a lecture including when the lecture slides are uploaded to My Learning Space. Any surrounding text other than the descriptive caption should be cropped out, otherwise you will need to request a CLA compliant scan using the online request form.

You can also use copyright images for teaching under one of the Fair dealing exceptions , e.g., s32  Illustration for instruction or s.30 Quotation. To be fair, use only what you need and acknowledge the copyright owner and source of the published material. If using whole images  use a lower resolution of the image than in the published image if at all possible.

Citing the images you use is important. Information on best practices for crediting images is available from https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/best_practices_for_attribution. 

For further information, email library@abertay.ac.uk 

If the 3rd party copyright material is not covered by a licence and you do not have permission from the copyright holder then one of the copyright exceptions such as  s.32 Illustration for instruction or s.30 Criticism, review, quotation and news reporting would most likely cover the use of this material in your recorded lecture, just as it would do in an in-person lecture in a lecture room. 

With either of these exceptions, the work must be sufficiently acknowledged, and the copying must fall within the usage of 'fair dealing'. There are actions that you can take to minimise the risk of copyright infringement with online teaching and these are listed below.

• Good practice is only to have the material available to students on a particular module. At Abertay, the use of My Learning Space (MLS) is ideal as only students on the module can access the module content.
• Including a standard statement /notification on the title or first slide of recorded lectures that states any 3^rd party material is included under licence or by a copyright exception (there is no need to specify which exception) and that the recordings are provided for students on a particular module, and that no further copying or posting/sharing etc is allowed. If technical measures are possible to prevent recorded lectures being downloaded this would be a useful option to use.
• Recorded slides must (a) provide an acknowledgement for all the 3^rd party content e.g., images, video or film clips, quotations (unless there is a very good reason why doing this is not possible), and (b) the material used must be for a specific educational benefit and no more than is necessary should be used.
• When using images, often the whole image will be used. To make the use more ‘fair’, good practice would be to use a lower image resolution for the copied image.
• If staff are particularly concerned about including specific material in the recording, they could edit that content out of the recording and indicate that the material has been removed or provide a link to it if it is available online.

If you have particular concerns about including 3rd party copyright material in your recorded lectures or any other teaching material, please email library@abertay.ac.uk .

Showing a film to a class

There is a specific copyright exception s.34 - Performing, playing or showing work in course of activities of educational establishment that allows a teacher to play or show films, sound recordings or broadcasts to staff and students on campus for the purposes of instruction. This would cover  showing the film to students in a lecture or seminar i.e., face-to-face teaching.

This exception would not cover showing a film online but this use could be covered by S.32 Illustration for instruction  provided that the dealing is:

• for a non-commercial purpose,
• by a person giving or receiving instruction (or preparing for giving or receiving instruction), and
• accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement (unless this would be impossible for reasons of practicality or otherwise).
• the use meets the criteria for 'fair dealing'.

"Giving or receiving instruction” includes setting examination questions, communicating the questions to pupils and answering the questions.

If you want to show a film or play music at a student society event, open lecture or other extra-curricular activity, you will need to apply for a licence from the appropriate agency as this use would not be covered by any of the UK copyright exceptions. 

There may be situations where the film which the lecturer wants to show to the class is not available in a format that the University can purchase a licence or the actual film.  For example, some films are only available form Streaming services which do not offer an institutional account or licensing option

A Code of Fair Practice for the Use of Audiovisual Works in Film Education has been created to help UK educators make informed decisions abut the lawful use of copyright protected films and audio visual materials for teaching. This guide does not constitute legal advice but describes common educational uses of copyright film and audiovisual content for teaching. However,  it is important to bear in mind that use of a Copyright exception will always come down to a risk assessment. This will involve considering the risks, including the commercial value of the work, whether the potential use would affect the commercial exploitation of the work and, the litigiousness of the copyright owner. if you are considering using this guidance, it would be advisable to seek advice from the Library. Email library@abertay.ac.uk.

Abertay holds an ERA (Educational Recording Licence).  This licence enables educational establishments to legally make recordings or copies of TV and radio programmes for educational use. Film, programmes, etc., covered by the ERA licence can be recorded and shown via the MLS. However, there is one important restriction to the ERA licence. You are not allowed to access ERA copies outside of the UK or make those copies available outside the UK. 

If you require further information, please email library@abertay.ac.uk.

For teaching the most useful fair dealing exception is S.32. This allows all types of copyright works to be copied for the sole purpose of illustration for instruction.

This exception will allow lecturers to use extracts from films, sound recordings, text, and other artistic works to illustrate a teaching point provided the use must be fair - i.e.,  they must use only what is necessary and the source should be acknowledged unless there is a very good reason why  acknowledgment cannot be given. 

Yes - you can copy copyright works for setting an examination question.

Copying material for setting an examination is covered by s.32 the illustration for instruction exception. The amount copied must be 'fair' and usually must include sufficient acknowledgment unless there is a very good reason why you cannot acknowledge the source. Further information on Fair dealing is available in the What is fair dealing? section.

When reusing 3^rd party copyright material you should check if there is a re-use licence associated with the material. If there is then this makes things a lot easier as the licence will clearly state how you can use the content without having to contact the copyright owner for permission.

Many sites containing images, audio, videos, etc., will let you search for material that allows re-use. For example, Creative Commons (CC) licences are a common filter on many sites. For images there are reverse image search engines such as Tin Eye and Google images  also includes this functionality. If you have found an image on a site, labelled CC BY but you want to double check the source you can use these search engines to check the  source of the image.

If it is clear the the material has not been made available by the copyright owner or there is some doubt over who posted it then you should not use it. Linking to content that you suspect is posted illegally does risk infringing copyright. Try and find an alternative source for the material.  If there is no other source and there is no alternative material, email Library@abertay.ac.uk. 

Creative Commons Licences provide a simple and clear method for licensing the reuse of a copyright-protected work. 

For copyright owners, they provide everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law.

For those wishing to use 3rd party copyright material, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work answers the question, “What can I do with this work?” All the re-use information is included with the licence.

The Creative Commons web site offers a choice of predefined licences using concise symbols that can be combined in different ways to produce six different licence options. Full details of each licence are provided on their website.

• A good credit would allow the person reading it to know the source of the material.
• For print materials, these would be similar to the information for referencing. For online materials it would be author, title, URL and licence if known. 
• If using CC0 material a credit is not required but it is always thought best practice to include one where possible or have a credit line for example all images Licenced CC BY available from [insert url].

For images or videos, best practice is to provide information about the image and its source. You should also identify the rights-holder (e.g. "Copyright ©2024 BBC"), reiterate any copyright statements or licensing terms indicated at the source (e.g. "All rights reserved", or "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License") and   if you have obtained written permission to use the content, add this additional information e.g., "Image reproduced by kind permission from  XXXXXXXX. 

For lecture slides, the credit could be underneath each image or, if this was not suitable, the images could be numbered and picture credits given at the end on the last slide.  

Guidance on crediting 3rd party images is available from https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/best_practices_for_attribution.

Staff are reminded that they are responsible for ensuring their actions are compliant with UK copyright law and the copyright licences held by the University. Although the University has a responsibility to ensure that staff (and students) are aware of copyright and comply with the law, it remains the responsibility of the person making copies or adding content to their reading list or modules to ensure they do not infringe copyright. Any materials or activities that do not comply with copyright law or the terms of the University's copyright licences will be removed.

If you need further information, please email library@abertay.ac.uk .

Any use of GenAI has confidentiality, privacy, and copyright implications. Unfortunately, for now  there are more questions than answers!

There are a number of high profile cases pending worldwide which should eventually  provide some clarity. In the UK , we are waiting on a response from the recent UK Government consultation on Copyright and Artificial intelligence. The consultation considers a range of approaches, but the key proposal is to permit wider use of copyright materials in the UK to train AI models, while respecting the rights of content owners who wish to “opt out” of this regime. This mirrors the current position in the EU. It is thought that licencing of content for use in LLMs may be one of the  solutions and some academic publishers have agreed licensing deals with AI companies to allow the use of their scholarly content as training data for large language models (LLMs). More are expected to do this. 

Where does this leave us now? the general feeling is that if we want to engage with the transformative changes that Generative AI brings, we may have to live with a bit of risk and uncertainty just now.

best advice currently is:   

• Don’t put copyright material into AI which adds submissions to an LLM.
• If using AI, Use LLMs  which don’t collect data for their training set ( e.g., Abertay’ Co-Pilot).
• Don’t ever put sensitive/confidential data  into your submissions.
•  Take responsibility - Read the terms of use of the AI tool  that you are using.

Any questions relating specifically to Copyright and Generative AI can be sent to library@abertay.ac.uk .

You may find the following blog posts of interest .

• Jisc – March 2024 - An introduction to copyright law and practice in education, and the concerns arising in the context of Generative AI.
• UCL blog post June 2024 Copyright and AI, Part 1: How Does Copyright Apply to AI-Generated Works?

There is also existing Generative AI  advice for both staff Artificial Intelligence: A staff guide and students Generative AI.