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Copyright guidelines for Birkbeck staff and students

This guide is a brief introduction designed to help staff and students working or studying at the College. Copyright is a complex area. There are so many issues and exceptions that it cannot be covered in a short guide. But please be careful, since academic institutions and individuals are not exempt from legal action. Responsibility for infringement of copyright rests with the person making the copy, not with the providers of the equipment. Buying or owning the original or a copy of a copyright work does not give you permission to use it how you wish. Content on web sites, and other electronic information, is similarly protected and you will need to have been given permission to reuse it. The Library has various books on the subject of copyright at 346.410482 (both in the reference section and in the main stacks), there are links to relevant web sites from this guide, and the College Librarian, Philip Payne (p.payne@bbk.ac.uk), may be able to advise you.

What is copyright?

Copyright is an intellectual property right, and copyright law is designed to protect the rights of writers, artists, musicians, photographers, publishers and other creators. Copyright exists in the following

original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, such as books, articles, web pages, drawings, photographs, databases and computer programmes
sound recordings, films, videos, broadcasts, or cable programmes
typographical arrangements of published editions

:The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 give legal protection to creators of these works in order to prevent exploitation and to protect their moral rights. Creators do not need to apply for copyright protection in the UK – it is automatic. The Act also states the rights of members of the public, employees and libraries in terms of copying copyright works.

How long does copyright last?

Copyright generally exists in a work for a period of 70 years following the death of the creator. If the work has been created by several people the period of protection will last for 70 years following the death of the last surviving author. Sound recordings and broadcasts or cable programmes are protected for 50 years from the first recording or transmission. Films are protected for 70 years from the death of the last survivor of the main parties involved in the production, although actors’ performance rights may also exist. Copyright in the typographical arrangement of a literary work rests with the publisher for 25 years following the date of publication.

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Infringement of copyright

The copyright owner has exclusive rights to

copy their work
issue copies to the public
rent or lend the work
perform, show or play the work in public
broadcast the work
adapt the work

It would be unlawful for anyone else to do any of the above without permission of the copyright owner, within the protected period.

When can I copy?

The Copyright Designs and Patents Act does allow copying of copyright materials under certain circumstances.

Fair dealing: The amount of a published work which may be photocopied under fair dealing is generally interpreted as:
no more than one chapter from a book
no more than one article from a journal issue
no more than one single case report from a law report

no more than 5% of a given work, whichever is the greater

Fair dealing: Copying must be for the purposes of private study or research for a non-commercial purpose, which is why, if we make or obtain a photocopy for you we ask you to sign a copyright declaration.

Criticism or review: You may copy parts of a work for the purposes or criticism, provided that sufficient acknowledgement is given.

Exams: You can copy virtually anything for examinations, by way of setting questions or communicating questions to the candidates. Subsequent publication or distribution of past papers containing extracts of copyright material would be illegal unless permission was obtained.

Off air recording: You can make copies of most terrestrial TV and radio programmes for teaching purposes under the terms of the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) Licence held by the College. You may also record satellite or cable programmes at home for teaching or private study without the need for record keeping as they are not currently covered by any licensing agreements. For more information see under details of licences held by the College.

Multiple copies for teaching and course packs: Under the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) Licence, which the College holds, you can make multiple photocopies of a journal article or a book chapter for teaching purposes one for each member of the class. Multiple copying from electronic journals will depend on individual licence agreements with the College Library. It is advisable to check with the publisher’s web site or the Library before copying. For more information see under details of licences held by the College.

Newspapers: Under the College’s Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) Licence you can make multiple copies for teaching purposes of articles from 20 national papers. For more information see under details of licences held by the College.

Slides: The Design and Artists’ Copyright (DACS) Licence allows the creation of slides of artistic works such as paintings and photographs for teaching and storage in slide libraries. For more information see under details of licences held by the College.

Electronic copying and storage: The College has taken out the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) trial scanning licence. This allows the scanning of published material within clearly defined limits. Certain restrictions apply, and access to the material must be limited to students on a specified course of study. For further information about the CLA trial scanning licence, see the frequently asked questions section below. For material that falls outside the scope of the CLA trial scanning licence, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner before scanning in material and storing it electronically. Creators of web pages should be particularly careful that they do not use copyright pictures or text, even if they obtained them from the internet.

Copying with permission of the copyright holder: Copyright may be bought, sold or passed on by the owner when they die. Copyright owners may give permission to copy, but it is strongly recommended that you obtain and keep written permission. The author of a book or journal article may no longer own the copyright of the material they have written since they may have signed it over to a publisher. College authors may therefore wish to retain the copyright of their material, which will enable them or the College Library to make copies available electronically to students and other researchers free of charge. Publishers and creators of artistic works will generally expect payment either directly or via the Copyright Licensing Agency or the Design and Artists Copyright Society if you wish to use their works for purposes beyond those allowed under the Act. The External Relation Department's design team and Print Unit will ask you for a copy of the written permission to use copyright work before agreeing to design and print materials on your behalf.

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How can I obtain permission to use copyright material?

If you want to use copyright material in a way which is not permitted under the exceptions described above or the licences held by the College, then you will usually need to approach the copyright owner and ask for a licence to cover the use you require. Of course, the copyright owner may refuse to give permission for use of their work. A licence is a contract between you and the copyright owner and it is for both parties to negotiate the terms and conditions, including the payment or royalty for the use. There are no rules in copyright law governing what may be acceptable terms and conditions. Sometimes copyright owners act collectively to license certain uses and collective licensing bodies can be approached for a licence. The Government’s UK Intellectual Property on the Internet site includes a useful list of these bodies.

Details of licences held by the College.

The 1988 Act allows for the establishment of licensing agencies which collect fees from licence holders for any copying beyond the provisions of the Act. The College pays for a range of licences designed mainly to support teaching and learning. These are held by the College Secretary’s office. If you use any of these licences it is important to become familiar with their main terms and conditions.

Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) Licence. The College pays £4.92 per FTE to cover multiple photocopying of printed books and journals for teaching purposes. The licence also allows the scanning of published material within clearly defined limits and with certain restrictions. For further information about the CLA trial scanning licence, see the frequently asked questions below. Multiple copies/digital copies can only be made from an original of the book, journal, or magazine owned by the HEI or a copyright fee paid copy of a chapter/article supplied by the British Library. Photocopying under the Licence is restricted to 5% OR one chapter of a book, one article from a periodical issue, one short story or poem not exceeding ten (10) pages in length (from an anthology of short stories or poems) or the entire report of a single case from a published report of judicial proceedings. Photocopies may be put together into a study pack for students. Some publishers are not included under the Licence, so it is necessary to check the CLA’s Excluded Categories and Works List. Printed music, maps, bibles and some other printed material are not covered by the CLA Licence. Newspapers are excluded by the College has a licence from the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) which allows copying from most UK newspapers. The full text of the CLA Licence is available here. User guidelines are available here.

Design and Artists’ Copyright (DACS) Licence. The DACS scheme allows the creation of slides from illustrative material (including paintings, drawings and photographs) appearing in printed works. Such slides are marked accordingly and held in slide collections. Film stills and advertisements are explicitly excluded from the DACS licence, so individual permission will have to be sought. There is a DACS Existing Licence which is retrospective and covers the stock of slides which had already been built up without the permission of copyright owners (prior to the 1988 Act). There is also an Annual Licence permitting institutions to produce and add new slides to their existing collections. Lecturers using the Photographic Unit for slide production from copyright material must complete a DACS record form with details of the slides they require, and submit this together with the copyright material before slides can be produced. The Photographic Unit will mark all the licensed slides before they are given to lecturers or sent to the slide library. The Secretary’s office sends a 6 monthly return to DACS, and Schools are recharged in proportion to the number of slides created (approximately 60P per slide). Private work is not covered by the College Licence. No extra payment is required for copyright cleared slides purchased from galleries and other outlets.

Educational Recording Agency (ERA) Licence. The College pays an annual sum to the ERA to cover any off air recording of terrestrial broadcasts for educational purposes. Open University programmes are covered by a separate licence (see below). Off air recordings may be made by members of the College at work or at home, and tapes may be used in class or catalogued and held for loan in the Library. All video and audio tapes used to record programmes off-air under the ERA Licence must be labelled with the date, time and title of the recording and the statement "This Recording is to be used only under the terms of the ERA Licence". The Library offers an off air recording service to members of the College.

Office of Public Sector Information Click-Use Licences. There are licences allowing the reproduction in any medium of Crown and Parliamentary Copyright material. There are a few categories of material which are excluded from such use. Please refer to the OPSI web site for definitions of material not included in these licences.

Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) Licence. The College's NLA Licence enables photocopying of extracts from 20 national newspapers for teaching purposes. The College does not pay for the sections of the Licence which cover the distribution of newspaper cuttings for internal current awareness purposes or the digitisation of newspaper material.

Open University Licensed Off-Air Recording Scheme. Off air recording of OU programmes is permissable under this Licence. It is important to keep records of all videos created or subsequently wiped. The College Secretary’s office does an annual census and makes payments to the OU based on the number of recordings held by the College. Payments for OU videos held by the Library are recharged to the relevant School bookfund.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the new CLA licence for scanning copyright material

I have been told that there is a new licence which allows me to digitise published material.
Yes – but within restrictions and with limitations. A record must be kept of any scanning that is undertaken under the licence and only ‘designated persons’ can make digital copies. Designated persons are assigned by the Licence Co-ordinator. This is the College Librarian at Birkbeck. At the present time, the only designated person in Birkbeck allowed to make digital copies under the Licence is Barbara Cumbers, Electronic Projects Librarian, on extension 0695 or email b.cumbers@bbk.ac.uk

So what is this licence for scanning copyright material?
The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) launched its trial scanning licence in August 2005 following negotiations with Universities UK. The College has signed up for the trial licence.

Is this the same CLA that is responsible for the higher education photocopying licence?
Yes. The scanning licence is an extension to the photocopying licence

You mentioned that it is a trial licence?
The trial licence is for a 3 year period from 1st. August 2005.

What can I legitimately digitise under the licence?
Only ‘hard copy’ books and journals acquired and owned by the institution can be digitised. If a copy is not owned by the institution, it is possible to digitise material which has been obtained by the Library as a ‘copyright fee paid’ photocopy from the British Library Document Supply Centre.

What other limitations are there?
The trial licence only allows scanning of extracts of books, journals, and magazines published in the United Kingdom. [The book or journal must give a UK place as at least one of the places of publication].

No material on the ‘List of Excluded Categories and Excluded Works’ can be scanned under the Licence. For example, printed music, maps, newspapers, bibles and some other printed material are not covered. There is also a special list of ‘Works Excluded from Scanning under the HE Trial Licence’. You must check to see that the item to be scanned, or the publisher, is not on the list.

Other limitations are the same as for the CLA photocopying licence ie:

Under the Licence, it is possible to digitise whichever is the greater of :

up to 5% or one chapter of a book
up to 5% or one article of a journal issue
up to 5% or one paper of one set of conference proceedings
up to 5% or one case of one report of judicial proceedings
up to 5% of an anthology of short stories or poems or one short story or one poem of not more than ten pages

Can images be digitised under the Licence?
Yes. The Licence permits a digital copy to be prepared of a whole page visual image and the disembedding of a part page visual image. However, the material to be digitised must meet all other conditions of the Licence.

What if there is a digital copy already available?
Before making a digital copy, you must make reasonable enquiries as to whether a digital version of the published material is not already commercially available. Scanning should only be used when you are satisfied that is the most practical method of making available a digital copy to your students.

What restrictions apply to making the digitised material available?
The material must only be accessible to students on a specified module. This means that items cannot be made available directly from the library catalogue or via the College web site. Making material available through WebCT, or through another virtual learning environment, meets this requirement.

What else do I need to do when scanning material?
The integrity of the original must be preserved which means that you should avoid any form of manipulation or adjustment to the digital copy. A copyright notice must be attached to each digital copy.

How long can the material be held for?
The digitised copies should be deleted when all students have completed the course - and if the course of study is not likely to be repeated in a future teaching session.

How do I find out more about WebCT?
Contact Peter Leffek, Teaching and Learning Technology Officer, in ITS on extension 6221 or email: p.leffek@bbk.ac.uk.

You mentioned about record keeping?
The Librarian, Philip Payne, is the Licence Co-ordinator for Birkbeck. He is responsible for overseeing record keeping in the College for the trial CLA scanning licence.

What else do I need to be aware of?
The CLA will be auditing selected institutions to check compliance with the terms of the licence including the use of virtual learning environments to make available scanned material to students.

Interested in knowing more?
If you interested in having digital copies made under the Licence, please contact Barbara Cumbers, Electronic Projects Librarian, on extension 0695 or email b.cumbers@bbk.ac.uk. If you wish to know more about the Licence, please contact the Librarian, Philip Payne, on extension 6250 or email: p.payne@bbk.ac.uk.

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Other copyright issues

Computer software. All software has one or more authors or creators who own the copyright in the software that they have written. Copyright applies to all software, whether it be commercial or free. The distribution and use of software is subject to a licence which specifies the terms of use. Members of the College should be aware of the CHEST Code of Conduct for the Use of Software and Datasets.

Electronic databases and journals. Printing and copying from electronic journals and databases is determined by Licence agreements signed by the Library. Users must observe the specific terms and conditions for each service. Links to the Licences pertaining to some of the larger electronic resources held by the Library are accessible via the links below.

Maps. The College does not hold Ordnance Survey or British Geological Survey licences covering multiple copying of maps for teaching purposes. You are restricted to a ‘fair dealing’ limit of up to four photocopies of a single extract of A4 size from one map at scale (ie not enlarged), for the purposes of research or private study.

Music. If you wish to copy music which is still in copyright, whether by means of photocopying or otherwise, you may only do so with the prior permission of the copyright owner, with certain limited exceptions. Bona fide students or teachers may without application to the copyright owners make copies of short excerpts of musical works provided they are for study only (not performance), but copying whole movements or whole works is forbidden. For more information see the Music Publishers Association or Mechanical Copyright Protection Society web sites.

Theses. A thesis is an unpublished work, and photographs and other copyright works may be included since it is considered to be the equivalent of an examination. If the thesis is subsequently published permission must be obtained to include copyright material.

Visually impaired The Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act 2002 allows a visually impaired person to make, or have made for them, an "accessible" copy of the whole work - for example: braille, audio, large print or electronic. Special guidelines for visually impaired people have been drawn up by rights holders in the UK.

College Copyright policy. The 1988 Act states that the copyright of work completed in the course of employment is owned by the employer. This may be waived in certain circumstances. The College is developing a copyright policy which will provide guidelines to staff regarding copyright ownership of teaching and research material created whilst in employment at the College.

Helpful copyright sites

Disclaimer

While every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in these web pages and in linked third party web sites, Birkbeck College is not liable for any errors or omissions.

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The Library, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX
Telephone 020 7631 6239 Fax 020 7631 6066 Email library-help@bbk.ac.uk