Copyright: Home

Private Study
UK copyright law allows anyone to copy from a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work for their own private study. Copying may include, but is not limited to - printing, photocopying or scanning.  The use must be covered by fair dealing. 

While there is no legal definition of fair dealing, use should not impact the original creator’s ability to profit from their work.  Therefore, you should always only copy a reasonable proportion that you actually need and you must give a full acknowledgement of the creator and the source of the material copied.

If you only need a single chapter or a journal article from a book or journal, which is held at any UCA campus, you can request a scan for your own  personal study and research using Scan & Deliver.

Disabled Students
If you are a student with a disability, copyright law allows you to copy the whole work into a different format so that it can be more easily accessed by you.  To do this you must either own or have legal access to a copy of the original work.  If you are a disabled student with an assessed need then the Library will seek to secure a suitable alternative format for you.  For more information see - Accessible Formats Service.

Assessment
UK copyright law allows you to copy and reuse a reasonable proportion of copyright work for the purposes of assessment.  Fair dealing will apply so make sure you use only what you need and always give a full acknowledgement.

If you want to reproduce an image, consider the resolution, particularly if the image can be accessed online even though it is for assessment.  A lower resolution image would not impact a creator's ability to profit from their work as greatly as a high-resolution image.

If you intend to use your assessed work beyond attaining your qualification and it includes copyrighted work, then you may be at risk of copyright infringement.  You should consider the risks and if possible, contact the copyright holder to seek permission to use works. 

Using Images
You may wish to use copyright images in your artwork, be aware that unless you are relying on a legal exception (for example, for the purposes of assessment or private study) you may need permission from the copyright owner.  Check to see if the image has a licence attached that specifies how it can be used and if in doubt contact the copyright owner. If you suspect the image is out of copyright, see if you can determine when the image was created. Tim Padfield, a specialist in copyright, devised a flowchart to help others determine if a work is in copyright.

Legal exceptions make it possible to use images for the purposes of education, subject to fair dealing.  This means you can use an image to support your argument or to illustrate a point (use should not impact on the copyright holders ability to profit from their work, for example: the image shared widely online).  Ensure you fully acknowledge the image and your sources.  For more information about referencing images see Plagiarism and Harvard Referencing.

Collages
Collages use different images to create a new work. You should check whether images you intend to use in a collage are in copyright or if they can be used under a licence.

If the images are in copyright, then consider your intention, whether you intend to use the whole or a substantial amount of an image, whether it is a small amount of the image, will the original image be unrecognisable and unidentifiable in the final work? If you intend to use only elements of an image so small as to be unrecognisable you may not need to seek permission from the copyright holder.  This will require a judgement to be made and may still carry a risk. To incorporate images in a collage, especially substantial amounts of an image, will require permission from the copyright holder.

Be respectful of the original creator’s moral rights. Use of a copyright image even a small amount may infringe their ‘right of integrity’ whereby an artist can object to derogatory treatment of their work.  This may include additions, deletions, alterations or adaptations of an original image.  The cutting up and reconstructing of a work may infringe this right.

Parody, Caricature and Pastiche
In the UK it is legal for an artist to use a limited amount of copyright work for the purposes of caricature, parody or pastiche -

Caricature: a picture, description or imitation of a person in which characteristics are exaggerated for comic effect.
Parody: an imitation of the style of a writer, artist, or genre with exaggeration for comic effect.
Pastiche: a work where the style is copied from elsewhere or contains a mixture of different styles.

While using work for parody, caricature or pastiche encourages creativity, the rights of copyright owners should always be respected. An artist who wants to use in-copyright work in this way should have a clear understanding of the purpose of their use and the target of the critique, at the same time minimising the amount of work directly copied and providing acknowledgements.

More information with regards to this exception can be found at the CopyrightUser.org site. 

Research requires systematic and thorough investigation to create new knowledge and interpretations, and outcomes are usually published externally.  The research and publication process often require a different approach to using copyright materials.

Research Outputs
Researchers are required by the University to publish their research outputs to the University's research repository - UCARO.  However, researchers retain any copyright in scholarly activity.

Thesis
Research students are asked to deposit their thesis in digital format.  Following assessment theses are published in the University's research repository - UCARO and to the British Library’s collection of UK theses - EThOS.  As the author you retain the copyright.

Using images in your Thesis
If you intend to include images in your thesis then you need to remember that not only will it be assessed but it will be published.  Therefore it is essential that if you are using copyrighted images that you clear these for publication purposes as well as assessment.  First establish if the image is in copyright, if it isn't clear, the following agencies may be useful to search - 

• Getty Images
• DACS Artimage
• Mirrorpix
• Bridgeman
• The WATCH file

If the artist is represented by an agency, then you will need to seek permission from the agency to use an image of their work before publishing.  If you have checked and can’t trace any commercial licence, then it may be possible to rely on the legal exception - criticism, review or quotation.  In which case you must ensure the following has been satisfied, the image -

• has already been made available to the public.
• has been used appropriately within the context of the thesis.
• genuinely being used for the purposes of criticism and review.
• is sufficiently acknowledged.
• consider reproducing the image in medium resolution so as not to adversely affect the sales of the original.

Quotation
Quoting a small extract from a published work is unlikely to infringe copyright, it will be defensible under the quotation exception providing your use comes under fair dealing. This would mean -

• work you are quoting from has been previously published.
• you quote no more than is required for a specific purpose.
• use is genuinely for the purpose of quotation.
• you include full acknowledgement.

If you intend to quote a substantial extract from a copyright work, then you will need to gain permission from the rightsholder. In UK law there is no definition of how much is ‘substantial’, it will always require a judgement and be a matter of fact and degree (a few sentences from taken from a long novel are unlikely to constitute a substantial part but a few lines of poetry might).

If you are writing for a publication, it is worth checking if they have a word limit for quotations where you do not have the rightsholders permission.

Gaining Permission
If you do need to identify and contact the copyright owner, you will most likely be contacting a Photographic Library, Agency, Museum, Gallery or Publisher.  These organisers will have systems in place whereby you can use the image for a fee.  The fee will vary from place to place.  Be sure to specify the rights required and the context in which the material will be used.  Other resources that may be useful in tracing a rightsholder are as follows -

• WATCH (Writers, Artists, & Their Copyright Holders)
• The Association of Authors’ Agents
• The British Library
• ALCS (Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society)
• FOB (Firms out of Business). Provides information about publishing concerns and agencies no longer operational.
• PMA (Personal Managers' Association) for TV, Film and theatre writers.
• Writers’ Guild of Great Britain

Be aware that when asking the rightsholder for permission to reuse work you will most likely need to negotiate a fee and/or accept certain terms and conditions. This fee and agreement will depend on your intended use (whether you intend to copy the whole work or an extract, the size of the audience you will distribute the copy to, who will make money from your copy, whether the copy will be distributed under an open licence). That said where copying material is likely to raise the profile of the creator then the rightsholder will likely to be keen to grant permission.  Right clearance can take some time so ensure you have left plenty of time before the deadline.  

Orphan Works
Orphan works are where the materials are protected by copyright but where no copyright holder can be traced or is unknown. This is not something that should be just assumed, steps should be taken to find the copyright holder. If after a diligent search has been made and no rightsholder found, then you can apply for permission to declare the material an orphan work. The UK’s Intellectual Property Office has an online application form you can complete, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/copyright-orphan-works

Ownership of Teaching Materials
The University owns the copyright in any teaching materials developed for the purposes of curriculum delivery.  However, the copyright of scholarly activities including research, books, book chapters, journal articles, conference papers, exhibitions, creative works, and other related activities, belongs to the creator.

Using Third-Party Materials in Teaching
If you are using teaching materials which you have not created you need to check if they are in-copyright.  If they are then check if the materials can be used under a legal exception, by licence or by permission.  Further information follows about teaching materials and keeping legal  - 

Ownership
You, as the creator of work, are the first owner of copyright unless you have assigned the copyright to someone else.  If your work was commissioned or created whilst employed, the copyright may belong to the commissioner or employer, check the terms of any contract.  If others were involved in the creation of a work, then joint copyright ownership would usually exist.

UCA students retain the intellectual property rights to all work created during their studies unless they have agreed otherwise.  Students do however grant the University a royalty-free, non-exclusive, unchangeable, worldwide licence to use their work for the purposes of education, marketing and otherwise promoting the University.

Protecting your work
A key factor to consider when thinking about protecting your work is to keep any ideas confidential. Be careful who you share ideas with, until they are expressed and made into something tangible, they are not protected by copyright.

If you decide to share your own work online, you should still be protected by copyright, though others may be able to use your work under limited legal exceptions. It is strongly advised that you read the terms and conditions of any social media platforms you may be using to see what rights you are assigning.

If you perform or speak in front of an audience, nobody has the right to record or distribute a recording of your performance without your consent unless covered by the terms of your employment, whereby the organisation may also own the copyright to any recording made.

Although copyright protection is automatic, once something tangible has been created, you may choose to add a copyright statement or the © symbol alongside images of your work to deter infringement.  Although it is not a legal requirement, displaying a copyright statement can demonstrate you are aware of copyright and take infringement seriously.

In the UK copyright protection is automatic and although it is not necessary to register your copyright, there are services that will register evidence of when work was made, by whom and the content. This can assist in a dispute to help prove ownership but isn't legally required.The UK Copyright Service is an example of this type of registration service.

Publishing your work
Always carefully check the terms of any publishing agreement so that you understand what rights you retain.  Some Publishers will ask you to transfer your copyright in return for royalties.

If you do not have to transfer copyright, you may be able to negotiate to retain the right to distribute your work to students or research colleagues.

Most scholarly publishers do allow authors to deposit a version of their work in an institutional repository.  For more information see - Open Access Publishing.

Licensing your work
As a creator you may want to consider assigning a licence to your work. Creative Commons Licences can be used to inform others about how they can reuse your work.  Creative Commons Licences work alongside existing copyright.

When licensing your images - choosing a licence will depend on the nature of the images and the intended use.  There are many types of licences for images (including Creative Commons) but some common types include -

• Rights managed - rights managed licensed images tend to only permit the images to be used once and the terms are particular to the use.
• Royalty free - allows a buyer to purchase an image and use it in a broad range of ways without needing to pay an additional free time they use it.

Liaison Librarians
Liaison Librarians work with students to help ensure they have the knowledge, skills and confidence to use library and information resources appropriately.  For more information about the Liaison Librarians and to book a tutorial see - Liaison Librarians.

Useful Resources in the Collection