Good Practice Guide #42 - Guide to Copyright

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AUA Good Practice Guide to Copyright

Good Practice Series number 42

This is one of a series of Good Practice Guides published by the AUA. Front cover image by Flickr user Nogwater, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0) licence. Š Chris Morrison and Jane Secker 2016 www.aua.ac.uk AUA National Office The University of Manchester, Sackville Street Building, Sackville Street, Manchester M60 1QD Tel: 0161 275 2063 Email: aua@aua.ac.uk

Written by Chris Morrison & Jane Secker


Contents

Introduction

Introduction

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This Guide

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Nine Things You Need to Know About Copyright

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Copyright FAQs

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Case Studies

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to a very tight deadline and may well have found some really good photos on

Further Reading

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Google Images that could be incorporated quickly and easily. However even for

Administrators, managers and other professional services staff in Universities regularly come into contact with copyright issues, whether knowingly or not. For example a School Administrator might be asked by their manager to find some images to add to a presentation promoting the School’s programmes to prospective students. It is likely that they will have been asked to put this together

the least copyright-aware there will probably be a nagging thought in the back of Imaging Credits

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their mind when presented with this scenario that makes them think, however fleetingly, about copyright. Are there rules you should follow if you want to use photographs taken by someone else? If so whose rules are they – the University’s, the School’s, or Google’s? This is probably one of the most common scenarios where administrators and managers can unwittingly infringe copyright. However despite the potential complexity of copyright law, there are a number of steps you can take, both at an individual and organisational level, to use copyright content creatively and safely.

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This Guide This guide is designed to provide an overview of how copyright is experienced in a Higher Education Institution and to provide advice on the best way to manage the use of copyright material. It does not constitute formal legal advice and should not be used in place of consultation with an institutional Copyright Officer or lawyer. It also provides advice based on UK law, specifically the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, although many of the principles discussed are valid throughout the world. The guide is separated into three sections. The first is presented as a ‘take away’ list of nine things every University administrator should know about copyright. The second section provides more detail on copyright law, in the form of some FAQs. Finally the guide provides a number of illustrative case studies to show the kind of copyright issues that arise and how best to handle them.

Rodin’s Thinker by Wrote CC-BY

Nine Things You Need to Know About Copyright 

Copyright covers all fixed, original expressions of human knowledge and creativity for a limited time Copyright is a law that protects any original creative human expression as recorded in a ‘fixed’ form (i.e. written down, recorded or saved to digital media). These are known as copyright ‘works’ and they include books, music, art, software, scholarly publications, films and broadcasts. Protection for copyright works is automatic (i.e. it doesn’t need to be registered), but lasts for only a limited time so older works go out of copyright and pass into the ‘public domain’(for more detail see the FAQs). The first copyright law was the Statute of Anne, introduced into British law in 1709 and its creation was prompted by the invention of the printing press and the need to regulate copying of literary 4

works. The first words of the Statute said that it was “an act for the encouragement of learning” and even though copyright law has changed a great deal since then, it still has a major impact on those working and studying in education establishments. Copyright is the legal mechanism that governs the production, consumption and sharing of human knowledge and creativity within the industrialised

global economy. If education and research is about ideas and the application of them to the needs of other humans and wider society, it is easy to see why it’s impossible to work in a University and avoid coming into contact with copyright at some point.

The Statute of Anne - Wikipedia

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2.

It exists on the internet

having to ask anyone’s permission. However acquiring or sharing copyright content online without the permission of the copyright owner is risky, unless you understand the implications of these actions and take care. 

Copyright governs certain types of ‘usage’ of copyright works

Internet Map 2013 - Anonymous

It is a common misconception that copyright law does not apply to the internet. This is an understandable (and perhaps convenient) conclusion to reach, given the ease with which online content can be copied, pasted, streamed, downloaded and shared. However copyright laws throughout the world were updated around the year 2000 to clarify that making text, images, software, music, or anything else protected by copyright available on the internet, or even a closed computer network, is subject to copyright law. This has created a tension throughout the world. In the old days before the invention of the World Wide Web we could get away without encountering copyright to any great extent. It was the preserve of professional artists/creators, media/publishing companies and other large organisations who could afford to produce and distribute creative works on a large scale. Universities were generators of copyright material, but this was largely about producing content for distribution by traditional publishing companies who handled the legal considerations. University librarians began to become more aware of copyright with the introduction of photocopiers and other reprographic technology in the 1970s and ‘80s. Now every administrator has access to a super-fast, global, decentralised copying machine (i.e. the Internet) in which content can be pulled from, pushed through, processed and stored without 6

Berry Hard Work by JD Hancock – CC-BY

If a work qualifies for copyright protection, then there are a number of things which you cannot do with it unless you have the copyright owner’s permission. These activities are described in UK copyright law as ‘restricted acts’ and the most obvious of these is the act of copying. The other restricted acts are described in more detail in the FAQ section and they cover the vast majority of things that someone might want to do with a copyright work, including publication, performance, sharing or acquiring online, renting and adapting. In short, if you want to use a copyright work in a way that is restricted by copyright, you need to have the permission of the copyright owner. 4. There are resources you can use without asking for permission Although copyright does restrict usage, there are obviously ways in which copyright content can be, and is used widely, by those at educational institutions without getting into trouble. When copyright owners give permission for others to use their works, they do so under a legal agreement 7


called a licence. A licence can take many forms, but in essence it says that someone (or a group of people) can do certain things with the work (or works) for a certain period of time, possibly in a specific place and sometimes for a fee. Universities hold a great many licences which allow the legal use of large collections of copyright material. For example University libraries purchase subscriptions to electronic journals and e-books, IT departments purchase software and the institution is likely to hold a range of ‘blanket’ licences from a ‘collective management organisation’ such as the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA). These blanket licences allow copying and use of whole classes of work, such as published books and journals, and represent a significant investment for Universities to ensure legal use of copyright content. It is likely that there is someone responsible for copyright in your Institution who can advise on these. Additionally, or alternatively, there may be other named individuals or teams who are responsible for the administration of these licences and can advise on whether and how they apply to what you are doing. Although the licences described above mostly involve payment and are relatively restrictive, the open and shared nature of the Internet has led to development of a range of ‘open’ licences which promote permissive use of copyright works. The most famous of these are the Creative Commons licences conceived by American lawyer and activist Laurence Lessig. These licences are described in more detail in the FAQ section, but works made available under Creative Commons licences provide a hugely valuable resource and all of them are available free of charge under clear re-use terms. At the time of writing, there were over 1 billion works licensed under Creative Commons, including thousands of educational resources, millions of Flickr photos, and the entirety of Wikipedia. Finally there are what we call the exceptions to copyright, which are legal provisions to do something without the copyright owner’s permission when a licence is unavailable or inappropriate for the given use. These get a bit trickier because they require some thought, but are extremely important to all in education. More information on the exceptions is provided in the FAQs and the case studies, but the majority of them relate to the concept of fair dealingˡ. That --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ˡ note that the concept of ‘fair use’ comes from US law and is not directly relevant to the UK or other jurisdictions

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is, how the work would be dealt with by a fair-minded and honest person. Ideally a prudent yet pragmatic application of the copyright exceptions should be ingrained in your Institution’s culture and processes as much as possible, and guidance and support on their use should be provided. However each Institution will have its own approach. 5.

All copyright works are equal in the eyes of the law, but some are more equal than others By this stage we have determined that many works are likely to be protected by copyright. In addition we have seen that the things that you want to do with those works (the usages) are often restricted by copyright law. We have also determined that those usages might be acceptable under a range of licences and/or exceptions. However it is also important to consider the wider context. As we saw in point 1, copyright protection arises automatically in anything someone creates that is original and fixed. This therefore covers a huge range of things, from the mundane (e.g. a doodle drawn in a notebook) to a hugely intricate creative work involving thousands of people and representing millions of pounds of investment (e.g. a film or a piece of software). This is the reason why it is not possible to select a one-sizefits-all approach to working with copyright content – it covers so many different classes of work, created by very different people or groups of people for different reasons. Some copyright holders (e.g. Hollywood film studios) are likely to be much more concerned about protecting their copyright than others (e.g. someone posting contributions to a public website) and are also much more likely to have the resources to take legal action. This is effectively the reason why it can be so hard to get a straight answer out of a lawyer or copyright adviser. If you ask the question “can I do this?” the answer will often be “it depends”. Hopefully by now you will have seen some of the things it depends on; the type of work, type of usage, licences available, exceptions that might apply and who the copyright owner is. In order to complete the picture you need to understand how the application of risk management relates to the use of copyright material.

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6. The biggest risk is to reputation, but money still talks Risk management is about minimising unwanted outcomes and maximising benefits in an uncertain environment. In the context of copyright there are a number of uncertainties: whether what you are doing is an infringement of copyright, whether the copyright owner(s) will find out, whether the copyright owner(s) will object and what action they might take if they do.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that at least one university agreed to pay a sixfigure sum for the posting of commercially valuable content by a staff member on the institutional website. 7.

There is no such thing as zero risk, but you can get pretty close if you think about what you’re doing. The concept of taking a risk based approach can often cause anxiety for those

The consequences of being caught infringing copyright will depend on a number of factors. It is unlikely for people to go to jail unless they engage in intentional, large scale infringement such as making or selling counterfeit The Shame by Grey Word – CC-BY goods. The most likely impact on an educational institution of its staff members being caught infringing copyright is on its reputation. This doesn’t just cause embarrassment for the individuals involved, it can have serious consequences for the whole institution. A college that was recently found guilty of hosting copyright content on its website was made to post an apology on its website home page². Given the importance of a higher education institution’s online presence for recruiting new students this is something that anyone would want to avoid. The college in the example above was also made to pay a fine of £23,000 so money is still a major concern. Rights holders who do find infringing uses of copyright content usually calculate damages based on the number of people who have, or could have accessed their content and the going market rate for the material. Out of court payments from organisations to rights holders for infringing uses are often not publicly disclosed because they are by their very nature settlements made to avoid the embarrassment of public scrutiny. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------²http://uckfieldnews.com/uckfield-college-ordered-to-pay-thousands-for-copyright-infringement/

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Rural laissez-faire by Bosc d’Anjou-CC-BY

who work with copyright material on a regular basis (Morrison & Secker 2015). It is understandable why an employee would want to be given clear rules as to how to avoid getting themselves and their employer into legal difficulties. Although there is by definition no such thing as zero risk (even getting out of bed each morning incurs a risk that something undesirable might happen) there are a number of things that administrators in Higher Education can do which will effectively manage the risk of infringing copyright. Firstly, it is important to know which copyright-protected resources are already available to you in your job and how to access these legally. As previously stated, Universities pay large sums of money for material to support teaching, research and wider engagement (such as library resources and stock 11


image services) and it is in their best interests to ensure that employees are aware of the existence of this material and how to make best use of it. Creative Commons (or similar) licensed content is now an extremely useful resource and is becoming increasingly adopted by Higher Education to create material produced for a wide variety of purposes. It is also worth referring to your Institution’s guidance for social media if you use it as part of your roleᶟ. It is common for people to share copyright material on social media sites, but the terms of use of services such as Facebook and Twitter make it very clear that the responsibility to use content legally lies with the user. If you or your colleagues are posting infringing content on behalf of an official University account, then the risk of a rights holder objecting and taking action is higher than for a private individual. This is because of the likelihood that the rights holder would think the University should know better and also because of a belief that Universities have deep pockets. 

Act responsibly

Spider-Man

Responsibility Power

“With great power comes great responsibility” by Maurice Mitchell (The Geek Twins) with permission --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ᶟRecent guidance from UCISA is also helpful and recommended 12 http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/exec/socialmedia.aspx

In most cases you can avoid unpleasantness when working with copyright material by thinking about what you’re doing and, by acting in good faith, always citing your sources and attributing creators/rights holders. Although copyright can be seen as a system of arbitrary rules, particularly when using technology that allows the user to do lots of exciting things that the law says they shouldn’t, it is important not to lose sight of why it exists. Copyright is supposed to formalise a respect for creativity, to ensure that people only use others' creative works with their permission, or in a way that provides a wider benefit to society. It’s very important to use empathy when thinking about how to use copyright content. Consider why the material you want to use was created, think about how you would feel if you were the creator and somebody else wanted to use your work. People often make the mistake of suggesting to creators that the use of their works would be good for their ‘exposure’. This rarely goes down well – professionals see it as a way of justifying getting them to work for free and those who didn’t create for commercial purposes are unlikely to want wider exposure according to someone else’s agenda. Commercial companies, like textbook publishers aiming to sell their books to students, are likely to be financially disadvantaged if a University makes several chapters of a title available for free on its virtual learning environment (VLE). This is because students won’t buy the book. This isn’t really as relevant when handling the more straightforward scenarios such as when you are relying on blanket licences (see point 4) or using material for which you already have permission. However, if you do need to seek permission or rely on a copyright exception, thinking in this way will get you most of the way to choosing the right path. 9. You are not alone… …or at least you shouldn’t be. Do you have a Copyright Officer? Who, if anyone, in your Institution is taking responsibility for advising on copyright? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you should ask them. The UK Higher Education Sector is very fortunate in having a large and active copyright support community who are always willing to help provide opinions or point people in the right direction. However it is very useful to have someone within 13


your Institution dedicated to copyright support issues who can provide consistent advice. This person would ideally be able to develop copyright policy based on the types of questions they are asked and the institution’s attitude to copyright risk.

What is the legislation? In the UK the legislation in force is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA) 1988, however over the years the act has been amended by numerous Statutory Instruments. Many of the recent changes are as a result of EU Directives which attempted to harmonise copyright laws across the EU, but not to the extent that there is one single copyright law in Europe. There is therefore a certain amount of similarity in copyright laws (for example how long it lasts) but differences in other respects (which ‘exceptions’ apply and how). What types of work are protected by copyright? Copyright covers all different types of materials (these are called works) and in the CDPA they are defined as:  Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works;  Sound recordings, films, or broadcasts;  The typographical arrangement of published works.

Alone together by Garry Knight CC-BY

When deciding if a work qualifies for copyright protection it is worth first establishing the type of work that you are dealing with. For example, literary works are not just works of literature; they can be any creative ‘ordering of words’ including email messages, or the words in this guide for example. . Meanwhile, artistic works could be illustrations, architectural plans, photographs or paintings. To qualify for protection a work has to adhere to three conditions:  Is it an original work?;  Has it been fixed in some way, whether on paper, electronically, or recorded (for example a performance of a piece of music which is recorded);  Has it been created by a person from the UK, or a country with a reciprocal agreement to respect copyright laws⁴?

Copyright FAQs What is Copyright and what does it protect? Copyright is a type of intellectual property right that provides protection and certain exclusive rights to the owner or owners of a creative work. In the UK these exclusive rights are:  the right to copy the work in its entirety;  the right to issue copies to the public (essentially to publish the work);  the right to communicate the work to the public (which means to broadcast or put it on the internet);  the right to perform the work;  the right to rent or lend the work;  the right to adapt the work;  the right to do any of the above with an adaptation.

How long does copyright last? Copyright duration varies depending on the type of work in question, however in many cases it will expire 70 years after the death of the author. The following table sets out the most common durations of copyright in the UK, 14

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------⁴ This is virtually every country in the world so it highly unlikely this a work wouldn’t be protected by copyright according to this condition.

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although around the world life plus 70 years has become the standard protection for many copyrighted works. This means that creators are able to exploit their works during their lifetime, but that protection for those works is also provided to their heirs for another 70 years after their death. Type of work

Copyright owner

Duration of copyright

Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work

Author(s)

70 years from the death of the last author to die

Films

Sound recordings Broadcasts Typographical arrangement

Principal director, author of screenplay, author of script and composer of the music Organisation who made the recording e.g. Polydor Records Organisation who made the broadcast e.g. BBC Usually a publisher who will have typeset the work

70 years from the death of the last of the creators listed to die 70 years after the year the recording was made 50 years after the year the broadcast was made 25 years after publication

Establishing if a work is still in copyright will sometimes require a degree of investigation, firstly to establish who the owner is (the universal copyright symbol '©' can be helpful here) and then to find out if they are still alive or not. Can people ‘sell’ their copyright? As copyright is a property right, it can also be bought, leased or transferred to another person or organisation. ‘Selling’ your copyright is actually called an ‘assignment’ of rights, whereas if a copyright owner retains their rights but allows someone else to use it for limited purposes or a limited time this is called a ‘licence’. Typically when an author publishes a book they will enter into a licence contract with the publisher that will give them an exclusive right to publish the work for a set duration. After this period copyright will revert to the author, but during the licence period, permission will usually need to be obtained from the publisher rather than the author.

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What provisions are made for use of copyright content in education under the law? Copyright is intended to protect creative works, however it is not intended to prevent ideas and works being used to further research or for education. There are therefore a number of statutory exceptions in UK law that make provision for copying of works without the permission of the copyright holder. One of the most widely used exceptions in higher education is the exception that permits copying for ‘private study or non-commercial research’. There is no specific limit on how much of a work you can copy for these purposes, the test being that this should be fair and justifiable. However it is usually acceptable to copy a chapter from a book or a journal article under this exception. The exception applies to a single copy and is subject to a test known as ‘fair dealing’ (see below for more details). This will cover most of the copying that individuals carry out in higher education, so for example when a student visits their university library and makes a single copy (either in print or scanned) of a chapter from a book for their studies. It would also cover a member of academic staff who might be carrying out a research project and needed to copy a journal article. Increasingly in libraries and across university campuses, the equipment used to make copies will just as easily scan an item as it will photocopy it. The law does not distinguish between traditional paper-to-paper copying and scanning. However, when a scan is created the individual should be aware that while they have the right to make a single copy for their own private study or research, they are not permitted to circulate that copy, for example by emailing it to colleagues, or by uploading it to the internet or the university’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). So while digital copies are the same as photocopies in some ways, those in education need to be aware that they do not have the right to share digital copies with others. This would be considered ‘communication to the public’ and is one of the exclusive rights of the owner of a work. Other relevant exceptions that might be used in education include copying for the purposes of ‘illustration for instruction’ and for ‘criticism and review or quotation’. In both cases you should give sufficient acknowledgement of the 17


work and the author, and it is generally expected that you would only copy small amounts of a work. A lecturer might, for example, project an image in the classroom under the ‘illustration for instruction’ or ‘criticism and review/ quotation’ exception. They may critique excerpts from a literary work. However, these exceptions do not cover multiple or systematic copying and ‘criticism and review/quotation’ cannot be used as a defence for copying unpublished works. What are fair dealing and fair use? ‘Fair dealing’ is an important concept for anyone wishing to rely on a copyright exception to use a copyright work without the permission of the rights holder. Many exceptions are subject to the fair dealing test which considers how a ‘fair and honest minded person’ might treat the work. It also requires the person using the work to consider the economic and moral implications of doing so. ‘Fair use’ is a similar concept, but comes from US law so is therefore not applicable to activities outside the USA. How can I copy works where exceptions don’t apply? In order to copy more than is provided by fair dealing, you will need to obtain or take advantage of a licence. These might be licences that your institution holds with one of the collective licensing agencies that manage rights on behalf of creators (such as the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) in the UK), or they may be licenses for individual products or services. Obtaining direct permission from the rights holder is also a form of licence. What copying is allowed for teaching? Many university administrators may be called upon to undertake copying for teaching purposes. Sometimes this might involve making single copies of a work, but more frequently teaching staff want to photocopy or scan an extract from a copyright work for all students in their class to read. This type of multiple copying of published editions of books or journal articles is generally done under a licence from a collective licensing body, like the CLA in the UK. All Universities in the UK purchase a licence annually which enables them to undertake multiple copying for teaching purposes. The licence fees payable by universities are based on their student numbers and the associated royalties are distributed via the CLA to publishers, authors and artists in recompense for any 18

potential loss of sales through copying of their work. The CLA licence has specific terms and conditions that indicate how much of a work you can copy: no more than 5% of a work, or one chapter from a book, one journal article from an issue (or whichever is greater). How do I use films, broadcasts or sound recordings? There are a number of situations when films, broadcasts or sound recordings might be used in a university and the purpose of showing the film or broadcast, or playing the sound recording or music is key when understanding the copyright implications. If films or music are shown in the classroom for educational purposes, to students as part of their course, this is permitted under an exception to copyright. Broadcasts from TV and radio are also typically covered under a licence that universities purchase from the Educational Recording Agency (ERA). You may be fortunate enough to have a subscription to Box of Broadcasts (http:// bobnational.net) which is an online service operating under the ERA Licence and allows TV and radio broadcasts to be recorded for educational purposes, watched by staff and students and saved to an archive. Clips can also be made from broadcasts and used in lectures or in online courses, although for licensing reasons the service is not available outside the UK. However, where films or music are being shown or played outside of teaching, for example at a public lecture or as part of a student society event for entertainment, then it is likely that you will need a licence. Music public performance licences can be purchased from PRS for Music (representing the song writers and composers) and PPL (representing the record companies) and there are a number of film licensing bodies that can provide one-off or blanket licences to screen films for entertainment purposes. What does copyright law say about recording lectures, events and live streaming? It is increasingly common to record lectures and events held in universities and even to live stream these to external audiences via the university website. There are a number of copyright issues to consider if you are planning such activities and you should seek advice from your institutional Copyright Officer or legal expert at 19


an early stage of planning. You should ideally use a release form for any speakers who are being recorded, and you may need to get permission or a licence if any third party content is being used in the recording, such as images or music. You should also notify the audience that recording is taking place, so people are aware if for example they ask questions during a recorded lecture. Is it necessary to get permission to use images, photographs and other artistic works? Images including photographs, illustrations, architectural plans or diagrams qualify for copyright protection as artistic works. Unlike literary works, in many cases people wish to copy images in their entirety to reproduce them on a lecture slide, in a book or on a website. If you wish to copy an image that is still within copyright under an exception (such as illustration for instruction, quotation, or criticism and review) you will need to consider the fair dealing principle. You will also need to provide a sufficient acknowledgement of the source. It is common for people reproducing images in books to obtain permission from the copyright owner, however if you wish to show an image in a lecture for teaching purpose then it is likely that a fair dealing exception will apply. There are many openly licensed image collections available online, therefore it will be easier to start your search using the Creative Commons Search (http:// search.creativecommons.org/) to help you find images that can be reused. Is it possible to use content from the internet without infringing copyright? As mentioned earlier it is a common misconception that copyright does not apply on the internet, even if the content is free to access and you are technically able to copy it. Most large organisations now have clear statements on their website about copyright and also ‘terms of use’ that govern what you can do with their content. You are well advised to read these statements and terms of use, particularly if you wish to use content from the website. Hyperlinking is a fundamental part of the World Wide Web and the least risky approach if you wish others to read a particular web page or online resource. It is advisable to hyperlink to content in preference to downloading it.

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What is Creative Commons and how does ‘open licensing’ work? When original works are created the default position is that they are the copyright of the author and all rights are reserved. However, many people are happy for content they share online to be used by others under certain terms and conditions (some rights reserved). Creative Commons and other open licenses are an attempt to simplify this process and to provide a legal framework for sharing content online. Open licences originate from the computer programming communities of the 1980 and 90s and open-source software, which is distributed for free, including the source code to allow it to be modified and improved. The architecture of the World Wide Web is built on open principles. Creative Commons (CC) Licences were invented by Lawrence Lessig, a law professor and internet activist in 2001. They are legal documents, but also machine-readable code that can be added to online (as well as other types of) content to specify the terms under which it can be re-used. There are six different types of licence, with the most permissive being that the original author is simply attributed (BY) and the most restrictive being that it cannot be used for commercial works or to make derivative works from (BY-NC-ND). You can also specify if you wish anyone using your work to share their resulting work under a CC or equivalent licence (SA). There is an online tool (http:// creativecommons.org/choose/) to help you choose the most appropriate licence for your own work. You can also search (http:// search.creativecommons.org/) for works such as images, video and music licensed under Creative Commons, so it is a valuable source of openly licensed content for students, lecturers and administrators in higher education. What happens if I am contacted by a rights holder who is accusing the university, or someone associated with it of copyright infringement? Cases of suspected copyright infringement are becoming all too common. In universities typical cases might include: a student society using logos or images on their website without permission; an academic uploading a journal article they had written to their personal website after having previously transferred the copyright to a publisher; or a lecturer making a scanned copy of a chapter available on the university’s public-facing website rather than making it 21


available via the VLE under the terms of the CLA licence. Many universities have a ‘notice and take down’ policy on their website which means they will remove content while they investigate a potential claim of infringement. A rights holder may be satisfied with this resolution, however depending on the extent of the infringement, they may also demand some form of financial recompense. The worst case scenario is that a representative of your institution might end up in court, however many rights holders will want to settle the matter out of court avoiding the expense and reputational risk of legal proceedings. In all cases you should seek advice from your institutional legal team and/or Copyright Officer over alleged copyright infringement. Another likely scenario is when rights holders identify someone illegally sharing their content on a peer-to-peer file-sharing site via a university network. Your institution should have a set procedure for handling these notifications as per the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (USICA) model copyright infringement notices (http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/publications/ copyright.aspx).

Case Studies Case Study 1: Finding images to use on social media Fred, the Administrative Officer in the Department of Politics is managing the social media accounts for his department that now has a Facebook page and a Twitter account. He read recently that tweets are more likely to be picked up and re-tweeted if they include images in them. He is wondering where best to source images for use on the Facebook page and to use when he sends out tweets. He knows there are lots of images you can find through a Google Image search and is unsure if he can use them on social media. Fred has been looking at the types of images that people share on social media and discovers that the terms of use of both Twitter and Facebook require you to own the copyright of any images that you upload to these sites. This means that he should not source images from a Google Image search, where he does not own the copyright of the photographs and does not have permission for 22

https://flic.kr/p/e5wZ3t (Social media apps by Jason Howie licensed under CC-BY)

their use. In the meantime, Fred realises that his department already have quite a substantial collection of photographs that have been taken at departmental events. These include official photographs of members of academic staff and also photos of events, such as lectures and study schools that have been run in the past. He is still worried that although the university owns the copyright of these images, it is not ethical to post images of people on social media without their permission. He therefore decides that he will start taking photographs himself to populate the account. He also speaks to the university press office and finds that they have a stock of images that are copyright of the university and they are happy to share this collection with him to add to the Facebook page. Another option that Fred could take is sourcing images that are licensed under Creative Commons to add to the sites, although he would be required to credit the owner of the photographs. He also realises that the department should ideally make people aware who are attending public events where photographs are being taken and give them the option to opt out of appearing in the photographs which may subsequently be uploaded to Twitter or Facebook.

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Case study 2: Using music at an event and an accompanying promotional video Helga is the Marketing and Events Officer in the Department of Management and she is organising a public lecture to tie in with the launch of a new book by two academics in her department. The authors are very keen to make an impact at the event, and have asked to play a piece of music from a popular rock band to the audience before the lecture starts. They have also enlisted two members of the University Multimedia team to film during the evening to make a promotional video which will be included on the department’s website after the event, to help promote the book.

The second issue relates to the filming that is going to take place at the event. As members of the public might appear in this video, Helga will need to ensure that people are made aware of the filming and are given the option to opt out of the recording. If any individuals are going to be filmed, then it might be wise to draw up a simple release form for them to sign. Helga also needs to ensure that the music that is being played at the start of the event is not included in the film production, or if it is going to be included that the appropriate licences are purchased via PRS for Music.

https://flic.kr/p/5iFbiY (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte - Pages 174 and 175 by Iwan Gabovitch licensed under CC-BY)

Again there are a number of issues that Felippe needs to consider in this scenario. Firstly, students are likely to own the copyright to their coursework and so ideally they should be asked to sign a release form before their presentations are recorded. This form will need to cover any future use of the work, for example uploading the videos to the VLE. Students will need to be given an opt-out facility however, in particular from the use of the videos by subsequent year groups. The department should ideally devise a policy to address issues such as how long these recordings will be retained, who has access to them and who has access to them and if the students are, or should be, identifiable. It might be helpful to include some instruction in course handbooks/ induction about finding and using sources such as images that are licensed for re-use and also to ask students to licence their presentations under a Creative Commons Licence. This will avoid any problems with third party content being included in the resulting presentation and video files.

There are two different issues in this scenario that Helga needs to consider. The first is that the members of academic staff have asked to play a piece of music at the outset of the event. Because this event is open to the public and the use of the music is not for educational purposes, a public performance licence is needed. Helga may be covered under an existing licence or might need to purchase one. PRS for Music and PPL offer licences for educational institutions as well as those for one-off events of this type and so Helga will need to find out what licences her institution holds. If a one-off event licence is needed, she will need to determine how much this costs and check that the academic staff are willing to cover the cost. If they are not, then it would be better to find a piece of royalty free music rather than a recording from a popular rock band.

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Case study 3: Filming students who are giving a presentation for use on the VLE Felippe is the Programme Manager for an MSc course in the Department of Engineering and the course lecturer requires students to prepare presentations as part of their group assignments. The students receive 30% of their marks for the presentation and to ensure the external examiner has access to the material it is decided to film the student presentations. The lecturer subsequently decides that it is helpful for new students to be able to see a sample of these presentations, and to watch the recordings and asks if the film can be made available on the university’s VLE.

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Further Reading

Image Credits

CLA website for HE: www.he.cla.co.uk [accessed 6 January 2016]. Copyright User website http://copyrightuser.org/ [accessed 6 January 2016]. Cornish, Graham (2015) Copyright: interpreting the law for libraries, archives and information services, 6th edn, Facet Publishing. Jisc (2015) A Quick Guide to Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital World. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/intellectual-property-rights-in-a-digital-world [accessed 6 January 2016]. Morrison, C. and Secker, J (2015) Copyright Literacy in the UK: a survey of librarians and other cultural heritage sector professionals. Library and Information Research. 39 (121) 75-97 www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/ lir/article/view/675 [accessed 6 January 2016]. OPSI (2015) Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/contents [accessed 6 January 2016]. Padfield, T. (2015) Copyright for Archivists and Records Managers, 5th edition. Facet Publishing. Pedley, P. (2015) Practical Copyright for Library and Information Professionals, Facet Publishing. PRS website: www.prsformusic.com [accessed 6 January 2016]. UCISA (2015) Social media toolkit: a practical guide to achieving benefits and managing risks http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/exec/socialmedia.aspx [accessed 6 January 2016]. UK Intellectual Property Office: www.ipo.gov.uk [accessed 6 January 2016]. UK Intellectual Property Office Guide to Copyright Exceptions for Education and Teaching: www.ipo.gov.uk/exceptions-to-copyright [accessed 6 January 2016].

Rodin’s Thinker – Wrote https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrote/9679809595/

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sizes/l CC-BY Statute of Anne http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Anne Internet Map - http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/this-is-most-detailedpicture-internet-ever Berry Hard Work – JD Hancock – CC-BY https://www.flickr.com/photos/ jdhancock/8671399450/sizes/l The Shame – Grey World https://www.flickr.com/photos/ greyworld/6813149012/sizes/l CC-BY Rural laissez-faire - Bosc d’Anjou https://www.flickr.com/photos/ boscdanjou/6160842788/sizes/l CC-BY With great power comes great responsibility – Maurice Mitchell (The Geek Twins) - with permission http://www.thegeektwins.com/2010/08/ten-greatest -geek-quotes-as-charts.html#.VQxFV00fyHt Social media apps - Jason Howie https://flic.kr/p/e5wZ3t CC-BY The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte - Pages 174 and 175 Iwan Gabovitch https://flic.kr/p/5iFbiY CC-BY

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