If you are a member of staff seeking advice about publishing your work, please see our Advice to Academics page (available only to existing members of staff at the University).

A PDF document of the University's Guidelines regarding photocopying and scanning of print materials is freely available for download. A copy of the most up-to-date Guidelines should be prominently displayed next to all University photocopiers and scanning equipment. If you notice that the User Guidelines at your photocopier or scanner are out of date or missing, please contact the Administrative Officer (Compliance) at infocompliance@warwick.ac.uk about procuring the latest version.

Any questions about the University's obligations in regard to the copying of materials, or any other general copyright-related queries, should be directed to the Administrative Officer (Compliance) at infocompliance@warwick.ac.uk. Questions relating to the scanning of materials should be directed to the Library Research and Innovation Unit at riu@warwick.ac.uk.

THE UNIVERSITY TAKES ITS OBLIGATIONS UNDER COPYRIGHT VERY SERIOUSLY. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL AND DEPARTMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY ENGAGED IN THE COPYING OF MATERIAL TO ENSURE THEY ARE AWARE OF THE LATEST COPYRIGHT LAW.

1. What is Copyright
2.  
   How do I obtain Copyright Permissions?
3. The University's HE  Licence with the CLA 
4. How much can I copy under the CLA?
5. What about Newspapers?
6. What about Educational Recordings?
7. How do I know if I have infringed Copyright?
8. What if I am Visually Impaired?
9. What is Fair Dealing?
10. Scanning
11. What about Websites?
12. Using Quotes from other Sources
13. The Exemptions to Copyright
14. Copyright and the RAE
15. Further Information

1. What is Copyright?

Copyright allows producers of original material to be fairly rewarded for their efforts and thus promote the development of other such material in future. The absence of copyright protection would enable others to exploit the material for their own purposes, limiting the economic reward of the original producer that is rightly theirs and discouraging future creativity.

Copyright exists in all published works. That includes websites, pamphlets, art, books, newspapers, podcasts, films, original dramatic works, music, sound recordings and all other forms of publicly available content (not ideas, names, titles, functional or industrial articles, though names may be eligible for trademark registration and logos may be protected under copyright as artistic works). Copyright does not have to be claimed by the publisher but exists simply by the act of publication through whatever medium.

It is usually the case that the individual who created a literary/musical/dramatic or artistic work possesses the economic rights under copyright, unless the work was produced in the course of employment, in which case usually the employer holds such rights. The rights to a published edition are however possessed by the publisher. Film rights are usually owned by the producer and principal director. The economic rights under copyright can however be transferred to others, in whole or in part, although the moral rights (designed to protect the personality and reputation of authors) remains with the creator of the work and their heirs.

To fulfil our copyright obligations in regard to photocopying and scanning of print materials, the University of Warwick holds a Higher Education  Licence with the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA). The Licence permits multiple photocopies (subject to conditions) to be made of extracts of printed books, journals and magazines and also includes rights (subject to conditions) to scan books, journals and magazines for the purpose of distributing Digital Copies. This Licence does not affect your right to create photocopies and to scan extracts for personal use under "Fair Dealing" (more information below).

We also hold Licences with the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) and the Educational Recording Agency (ERA).

2. How do I obtain Copyright Permissions?

First check the information below about our Licences and the exemptions to copyright. It may be that what you want to do with a copyrighted work is already covered under these.

If it isn't however, you will need to obtain permission from the rights owner to copy their work. The rights owner will usually be the creator of the work or, in the case of published works, the publisher. You should write to the rights owner, laying out clearly what you wish to do with the work. You should not proceed until you have permission from the rights owner. You should retain a hard copy of the permission within your department in case it is later challenged. If you copy a copyrighted work without permissions you will have committed an offence in law.

If you have any queries about this or aren't sure whether what you intend to do falls under the permitted uses please contact the Administrative Officer (Compliance) at infocompliance@warwick.ac.uk for advice.  

3. What does the University's HE Licence with the CLA Cover?

Under the Higher Education Licence, members of academic and administrative staff employed by the University (not including 'walk in' users such as alumni or NHS staff based at the University's premises) and students based at the University of Warwick can make and receive photocopies of limited extracts from copyright protected printed books, journals and magazines and digital copies of limited extracts from copyright protected printed books, journals, periodicals, conference proceedings, law reports and magazines. The licence permits copies to be made in the UK only, but Distance Learning students enjoy the same rights as campus based students to receive photocopies and to view, download and print Digital Copies. The Licence also allows 'Designated Persons' (presently Library staff only) to make and distribute scanned copies of print materials.

It is important to note that the Licence allows photocopies and digital copies to be made from either an original of the book, journal or magazine owned by the University or a copyright fee paid copy of a chapter/article supplied by an organisation holding a document delivery licence with the CLA (i.e. the British Library). This allowance excludes 'inspection' copies, 'proof' copies (complimentary early editions provided for review purposes), and article 'reprints' or 'offprints' supplied on a complimentary basis by the journal publisher to a contributing author.

Some material cannot be photocopied under the terms of the licence. This includes:  

• Printed music (including the words)
• Maps, charts or books of tables
• Public examination papers
• Workbooks, workcards and assignment sheets
• Privately owned documents
• Newspapers
• Industrial house journals
• ‘Copying not permitted’ publications
• Works published in the ‘List of Excluded Categories and Excluded Works’ at http://www.cla.co.uk/licenceinformation_listofexcludedcategoriesandexcludedworks.php
• Works published outside the ‘Mandating Territories’ (regularly updated at http://www.cla.co.uk/Mandating_overseas_terr.php)
• Works published by non ‘Participating US Publishers’
• Unpublished material i.e. theses, dissertations, internal reports, committee minutes, etc

4. How much can I copy under the CLA Licence?

With reference to supply to a student enrolled on a Course of Study, the proportions that can be photocopied is restricted to 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 10 pages

You can copy a work in full if you own the copyright on the work, the owner of the work has given you explicit permission to copy the work, or copyright on the work has expired (for literary, dramatic or artistic works, copyright lasts until 70 years after the death of the creator; typographic copyright of printed works lasts 25 years from publication in that edition).

5. What about Newspapers?

The University has a Licence with the Newspaper Licensing Agency to make hard copies or digital/electronic copies of newspaper cuttings from a number of national, regional and international publications. Anything within a newspaper is owned by the publisher and copyright of newspaper articles lasts for 25 years after the end of the year in which they were published. The Licence with the NLA allows us to fulfill our legal obligations without having to contact each newspaper individually. The Licence does not cover the use of articles for public or commercial distribution or access, or for hosting articles on publicly accessible websites. In these cases, you will need to contact the relevant newspaper syndication department. See www.nla.co.uk for further details.

6. What about Educational Recordings?

The University has a Licence with the Educational Recording Agency to make recordings of a broadcast and copies of such a recording and of such copyright works and/or performances contained within the recorded broadcast by or on behalf of the University for the educational purposes of the University, and to authorise such recordings to be communicated to the public by an individual on University premises to the extent that the communication cannot be received by any person situated outside the premises of the University. The Licence covers various recordings but not Open University programmes - any individual unsure of what recordings are covered should contact the Administrative Officer (Compliance) at infocompliance@warwick.ac.uk. All recordings or copies made under the terms of this Licence should provide sufficient acknowledgment to the broadcaster, including the name of the broadcaster, the date upon which the broadcast took place and the title of the recording. Any such copies should be used for non-commercial purposes only. See www.era.org.uk for further details.

7. How do I know if I have Infringed Copyright?

Unless you have been given permission by the copyright owner of a copyrighted work, your actions fall within an exemption to copyright (see the list in point 12 below), or you are operating within the terms of one of the University's Copyright Licences referred to in these webpages, you will be infringing copyright if you copy the work, circulate or broadcast the work to the public, or adapt the work. Copyright infringement can carry serious penalties at the discretion of the copyright owner, so it is in your interest to ensure that you are operating within the law in relation to copyright.

8. What if I am Visually Impaired?

The Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act 2002 allows multiple copies to be made of published works in whatever is the most appropriate format for visually impaired persons without the need to seek copyright permissions, provided that they are for the individual's personal use and it does not interfere with the copyright owner's commercial exploitation of the work. More information can be found at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2002/20020033.htm#1

9. What is Fair Dealing?

Fair Dealing is an exemption in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 which allows a degree of copying (i.e. single copies of short extracts of copyrighted works) for the purposes of “research or private study”. The precise proportion of a work constituted as 'fair dealing' is not clearly defined in law so anyone making copies of works in this way are advised to ensure any such copies are small proportions of the total works only and are used strictly for non-commercial research or private study purposes. Please contact the Library Research and Innovation Unit at riu@warwick.ac.uk for more information.

10. Scanning

The same limits on the proportion of the publication that apply to photocopying also apply to scanning. Acts of scanning under the Licence can only be carried out by designated members of staff in the University Library. If you would like to find out if something can be scanned, please use the library’s request form at http://go.warwick.ac.uk/clascan or contact the Library RIU at riu@warwick.ac.uk.                                      

11. What about Websites?

Material published on websites, both on the University website and externally, is subject to copyright. Some websites will describe what may and may not be done with their material. If the website does not explicitly state this, it is reasonable to assume that copying/downloading the use of text and, in some cases, images is acceptable for personal use and assessed work. However, the use of images (particularly organisational logos) and text should not be included in another print or electronic publication without permission and acknowledgement. The University website's terms and conditions are available at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/terms/.

12. Do I Need Permission to use Quotes from Another Source in my Work?

This depends on whether copyright still exists in the work you are quoting from, whether you are copying a substantial part of the work or whether any exceptions to copyright apply.  A 'substantial part' can even refer to a very small part of the work if the text quoted is particularly significant to the work as a whole.

13. The Exemptions to Copyright 

There are several exceptions to copyright that allow limited use of copyright works without the explicit consent of the copyright owner - these can include:

Limited use for teaching in educational establishments (a teacher writing on a board or overhead projector, setting examination questions, etc, provided that the source is acknowledged) 

To help visually impaired people (provided it is for the individual's personal use and does not interfere with the copyright owner's commercial exploitation of the work)

Playing of sound recordings for educational (not-for-profit) purposes (provided it is transmitted only to persons within the premises of the University)

For the purposes of criticism or review (provided only a short extract of the work is used, the original has already been made available to the public and sufficient acknowledgement is given)

For the purposes of non-commercial research or private study (providing fair dealing is observed i.e. single copies only of a short extract of a copyright work). 

NB: As a student, using short quotes in your academic work, provided they are adequately referenced/acknowledged, is acceptable under the provisions of copyright.

14. What about the University's Copyright Obligations in relation to the RAE?

In many cases, the RAE Team will need to be able to provide submitted research outputs in printed form to panel members for assessment. HEFCE, acting on behalf of the RAE Team, has therefore agreed a royalty-free licence with the Copyright Licensing Agency to enable access for RAE purposes to books, journals, and magazines purchased by the UK higher education community.

The licence agreement permits panel members, and the RAE Team to display the material on screen or to print a copy for assessment; to download and store copies of such material in digital form for the purpose of assessing any RAE submission; and to link to research outputs referred to in any submission via the DOI (Digital Object Identifier codes).

The licence also permits submitting HEIs to submit a copy in digital form or provide a photocopy of the full text of research outputs in any submission; and provide this information to the RAE Team based at HEFCE. Where an HEI has a subscription permitting access to the full-text of a submitted research output, the HEI is authorised to download the publisher's PDF file for transmission to the RAE Team for RAE assessment purposes. For research outputs available in print, HEIs may provide photocopies or (where appropriate) the scanned digital form of the research output required for assessment. For further information please contact RAE 2008 at http://www.rae.ac.uk/contact/

15. Further Information

For help and advice on copyright matters please contact the Administrative Officer (Compliance) at infocompliance@warwick.ac.uk.  

The information on this website is provided for guidance only and should not be taken as definitive legal advice. User Guidelines explaining the terms of the Higher Education Licence in more detail, the List of Excluded Categories and Excluded Titles and the List of Participating US Publishers can be obtained, free of charge, from CLA Customer Services on 020 7400 3122 or via the CLA website at www.cla.co.uk.

The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 can be viewed at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/Ukpga_19880048_en_1.htm.

The Copyright (Librarians and Archivists)(Copying of Copyright Material) Regulations 1989 can be viewed at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1989/Uksi_19891212_en_1.htm.

The Newspaper Licensing Agency website can be viewed at www.nla.co.uk.

The Educational Recording Agency website can be viewed at www.era.org.uk.

Useful information on Intellectual Property and Copyright in the Digital Environment can be viewed at http://www.caret.cam.ac.uk/copyright/index.html