Library
A Department of Learner Support Services
University of Bradford >> Library >> Services >> Copyright and licensing
Both staff and students at the University of Bradford must comply with copyright law and any relevant licensing when making copies of works still within copyright. Copyright law applies to photocopying and scanning from books and journals; and to the reproduction wholly or in part of born digital content including, for example, ebooks, ejournals and web pages.
Copyright and licensing of material for reuse in educational institutions is a complex topic. These pages aim to draw attention to copyright and licensing basics, and guide staff and students in taking advantage of a variety of printed and online information sources while keeping within the copyright law. Where possible links have been given to official copyright and licensing authority pages. Contact the Library (copyright@bradford.ac.uk) for further information or if you have specific queries about copyright.
Please note: The information given on the Library's copyright and licensing pages does not constitute legal advise.
Sections on this page:
Copyright is a legal protection given to any person who creates certain kinds of material, including books, journal articles, artistic works, and computer programs. In the United Kingdom, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 as amended by the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 attempts to balance the requirement of protecting the intellectual and economic rights of the owner with the need to ensure reasonable access.
Copyright is complex and the guidance given here covers only the most commonly experienced situations. Further information and help is available from the University of Bradford eResources Librarian, Ms Satu Nieminen (email: copyright@bradford.ac.uk).
Copyright exists for 70 years from the death of the author.
Under the “fair dealing” exception of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, practice suggests that copies may be made for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study up to these limits:
From 31 October 2003 copying for commercial purposes has been excluded from the fair-dealing exception. Members of the university may continue to copy for commercial purposes by virtue of the CLA Higher Education Licence (see below). However, the exclusions listed should be noted.
Non-members of the University who have been awarded use of the Library and wish to make photocopies for commercial purposes, may do so by purchasing a CLA "sticker". One sticker is required for each item copied. The stickers cost £10.00 each and are available from the Reception Office in the J B Priestley Library and from the Counters in the Health Studies and Management Libraries. Further details are available at the CLA website: http://www.cla.co.uk/directive/stickerscheme.html
Restrictions also apply to material in electronic format, (disc, CD-Rom or Internet) and similar restrictions apply to downloading and printing. Some of these sources will also have licence restrictions that control what a user may or may not do.
All photocopying of copyright material carried out anywhere within the University must conform to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or to any of the subsequent licence agreements which the University has signed. Alternatively anybody making photocopies must have the express permission of the copyright holder. Any breach constitutes a criminal offence.
From 31 October 2003 single photocopies of printed extracts (e.g. book chapter or journal article) can only be supplied if the requestor signs a revised copyright declaration confirming that the copy will be used for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study.
Members of the University who require inter-library loans for commercial purposes must use the copyright fee paid service and pay the cost.
The term "commercial" is currently undefined. The following guidance is offered as advice only and has no legal status. Further information can be obtained from the Copyright Office at the British Library. They have a useful FAQ page:
http://www.bl.uk/services/information/copyrightfaq.html
Activities unlikely to be considered as commercial:
Copying by currently registered university students in support of credit bearing courses. Copying by such students who are sponsored by commercial companies will still be considered as educational and therefore non-commercial
Activities that might be considered as commercial:
Activities that might be considered commercial, depending on the circumstances:
Work done by university staff or students as part of research sponsored by a commercial company. Key questions to ask:
The University of Bradford has signed up for the Comprehensive CLA License for Higher Education. The license covers photocopying and scanning of paper and digital originals; and digital to digital copying. The purpose of the license is to enable academic staff to create course packs for their students thus broadening and enhancing the student experience.
Copying and scanning is permitted from original published editions of books, looseleaf works, law reports and journals in which copyright subsists in the United Kingdom or the Photocopying Mandate Territories (United States plus many European countries) not including Excluded Works and Categories of Excluded Material.
Under the terms of the Comprehensive CLA HE Licence, multiple copies may be made of up to 5% of a book or one chapter (whichever is the greater) or one article from a single issue of a periodical, up to class numbers plus one.
As with the production of photocopies, scanned copies made available to students may not during any one Course of Study exceed either singly or in aggregate the greater of 5% of any published edition, or:
Further conditions on scanning
Digital copies should be generated from:
Certain categories of works are not covered by the CLA license:
A separate permission is required to scan from the following:
a list of specific works not covered by the license is available to view - CLA List of excluded works.
International exchange agreements with a number of other countries permit UK licensees to copy legally from foreign magazines, books, journals and digital publications.
Current agreements permit CLA licensees to photocopy titles published in certain territories. In addition, several of these territories extend rights for scanning and for the re-use of digital publications, depending on the type of licence being held. Please refer to the CLA website for details of what type of copying is included for each territory and follow the links to see specific inclusions/exclusions for each country. Three lists are provided for publishers from the United States covering Included Publishers (photocopying), Included Publishers (scanning) and Excluded Publishers.
If you wish to scan or copy from any of the works listed by CLA as excluded, you need to contact the rights holder(s) directly for permission prior to copying. In the first instance this tends to be the publisher.
The Staff File Collection consist of both print and digitised files which are core recommended readings. The files are typically journal articles, book chapters, lecture notes or other core material needed by course students, which are in high demand. Members of Academic Staff can request material to be included in these collections. Before submitting requests it would be advisable to read the information leaflet about the Staff File Collection which gives more information about the process and the permissions/restrictions of the CLA Licence agreement.
The scanning service is operated by Learner Support Services with delivery being through the Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard). Members of staff who wish to use the service should complete the online request form. For information about the scanning service please contact the scheme’s administrator, Rebecca Woods (extension 3369 or lib-files@bradford.ac.uk).
Because of strict conditions laid down by the CLA, digital copies required for the purpose of teaching may not be made in any other way. Any copies that are discovered to have been produced outside this arrangement will be regarded as infringing copies and may lead to disciplinary action.
The University has signed the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) License. The ERA Licensing Scheme permits staff at our institution to record, for non-commercial educational purposes, broadcasts made by ERA Members. This license allows the use of recordings of broadcasts as teaching resources.
For a complete list of ERA members, visit the ERA website.
The ERA License authorises the following non-commercial activities:
Please note: A "broadcast" is defined as a transmission for simultaneous and lawful reception by members of the public, i.e. it is not encrypted or encoded and is for general reception, unlike pay-per-view services. The License therefore covers broadcasts by:
On-demand and interactive services are not deemed "broadcasts". These include services where the viewer/listener actively chooses the viewing or listening time or content of programmes. Examples of these types of services would be programmes delivered via the BBC iPlayer, Demand Five, or 4 on Demand. However, broadcasts delivered via the Internet with a range of fixed viewing/listening times to select from may be recorded. Non-scheduled Internet transmissions cannot be recorded under the ERA License.
Please note that only broadcast material owned or represented by ERA members is licensed through the ERA scheme for off-air recording. This excludes certain broadcasts and material such as advertisements from the license as ERA members do not own or control the rights in them.
Academic staff may make recordings either on- or off-campus. Any recordings made off-campus may only be provided for campus use in hard-copy form e.g. DVD, CD-ROM, cassette, etc. and not using email or other online services.
As an ERA license holder the University may also nominate a third-party to record and copy broadcasts on our behalf under a written third party agreement with ERA. Copies of such recordings may again only be delivered in hard copy form and not by email unless prior written permission from ERA.
All licensed recordings must be clearly and appropriately labelled. Failure to do so may lead to our licences being withdrawn. Any casings and discs or cassettes themselves must always be labelled with the following information:
When storing digital recordings on a server, the above details must be included as a written opening credit or webpage which must be viewed or listened to before access to the ERA recording is permitted.
Anyone recording material under the ERA licence must keep a record as this is a condition of the licence.
Licensed recordings may be retained, stored and copied in either analogue or digital format. It is permitted to even collect recordings into a resource bank. Recordings may also be relayed within the University of Bradford, for instance online for class showings.
Educational institutions may only record, store or copy programmes for non-commercial educational purposes. This prohibits the use of licensed recordings in the following example situations:
The ERA website provides further information on how staff at the University of Bradford can use licensed recordings.
As of January 2009 every PhD student at the University of Bradford has been required to submit an electronic copy of their examined and accepted thesis alongside their bound copies to the HUB. This electronic copy has subsequently been deposited in the University of Bradford online repository – Bradford Scholars.
It is very likely that you will be quoting material by other authors in your work. Permission is not required when using third party copyright material for examination purposes as in a thesis. However, permission IS required when placing the same thesis on the Internet. This constitutes publishing and permission must be sought from the third party copyright holder(s) prior to handing an electronic copy of a thesis to the HUB.
The Library has produced a guide for PhD candidates to help with copyright issues:
Copyright and eTheses - Word version (817KB) pdf version (336KB)
Placing published journal articles on personal websites or depositing them in openly accessible institutional repositories requires the permission of the copyright holder. The copyright owner is often not the author. An author who has signed copyright over to their publisher needs to check with the publisher in question whether they permit the reuse of published papers on the web.
Quick ways to check if your publisher allows deposits to Bradford Scholars or a personal web page:
Authors who have not signed away their copyright are free to reuse their own journal articles by placing them on personal websites or in an institutional repository.
The Library has made available a copyright fact sheet.
The JISC Collections online copyright activity tool aims to inform and educate practitioners in the FE and HE sectors in the UK about some of the key issues in using copyrighted material in a digital online environment and the role of JISC Collections in the provision of solutions to these issues. The tool is targeted at teachers and lecturers in FE and HE. It will also be useful for curriculum managers, learning technologists, learning resources staff and any staff who deal with digital resources.
JISC have also created a Copyright Toolkit for authors who wish to publish journal articles, and an animation "Intellectual Property Rights in the Web 2.0 world for individuals working with online content. This animation makes reference to the online diagnostic tool Web2Rights and provides a set of relevant copyright links.
The Strategic Content Alliance (SCA) has created an IPR Toolkit to assist in managing copyright. The SCA toolkit is very practical and provides top tips for licensing and on how to seek permissions from copyright holders, including an IPR risk assessment. The toolkit also supplies a range of templates for requesting and granting licenses, permission request emails and consent forms. All practical tools may be adapted for local use.
