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Copyright

Explaining aspects of copyright to be aware of when studying, lecturing or undertaking research. Please note that information on these pages is for guidance only: it does not constitute formal legal advice.

Introduction

This page explains what it is permissible for staff to do in terms of photocopying and scanning for educational purposes, under the terms of the Copyright Licencing Agency (CLA) Higher Education Licence that City St George's holds.

In particular, staff should not prepare or distribute scanned extracts of copyright-protected material outside the terms of the licence without seeking permission, otherwise there is a serious risk of infringing copyright law.

If you have any queries relating to this, please direct them to the Digitisation Team.

 

A word cloud about copyright, prominent related terms are Use, copyrighted, work, fair, community, material, years

Scanning (Digital Course Readings) and Photocopying for Course Packs

Digital Course Readings

  • Scans for sharing with students can only be made under the terms of the University's CLA Licence (PDF, 154 KB). This permits, subject to the conditions outlined below, most printed copyright material published in the UK, some from the USA and certain other international territories (see the Notes box below) to be made available in digital format to students in a controlled way, by clicking a link in the reading list, using the Reading Lists Online system.
  • Only authorised members of staff (in Library Services) may make digital copies of this kind. Academic staff wanting to make digital copies of book chapters or journal articles available to their students should see information about the Library's digital course readings service, which works in conjunction with Reading Lists. Please also contact your Subject Librarian for further information.

Course Packs

Course packs comprising photocopies of extracts from books or journal articles, and/or printouts from websites, may be compiled, but they must comply with the key terms and conditions of the CLA licence given below, as well as the following points.

  • Course packs for students can be made by anyone within the University for educational purposes.
  • No more than one copy for each student and the instructors may be made.
  • Copies made must not remove the need for students to purchase a textbook if there is one available.

  See also the Good Practice Guide (Course packs) on the CLA website.

 

Key terms and conditions of the CLA Licence for scanning extracts and creating course packs

  • City Library must own the publication that the copy is taken from. This can be checked by using CityLibrary Search. Alternatively Library Services may be able to obtain a Copyright-Fee Paid copy obtained from the British Library. Personal copies may not normally be used.
  • Copying limits for each course:
    • Books: no more than 10% or one chapter (whichever is greater)
    • Journal issue/conference proceedings volume: two articles from a journal issue; or where the issue, or a substantial part of it, is dedicated to a particular theme, any number of articles dealing with that particular theme
    • Law Report volume: the entire report of a single case.
  • Accessing readings: scanned copies must be made available on a secure network for students to access. At City this is Reading Lists Online (not Moodle). Using Reading Lists rather than Moodle allows Library Services to keep track of what has been made available and that it has been done legally. This is necessary as we are required to report all digitised readings that are made available to the CLA. Please do not make digitised readings available yourselves via Moodle, where they have been made under the CLA licence, because of this reporting requirement.
  • The material must be covered by the Licence which the University holds with the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA). Coverage can be checked on the 'Check Permissions' tool on the CLA website (please ensure that you select 'Higher Education' in the sector box).

 

Please note:

  • If a publication is not covered for copying under the terms of the CLA licence, then the law allows a more limited amount to be copied (up to 5%) to make available to students (because this is subject to Fair Dealing). It is necessary to obtain permission from the rightsholder to copy and make available any more than this.
  • Material from electronic resources is generally not made available as digitised readings (although there can be exceptions to this). Links should be provided to these instead.

Textbook substitution

Note that students should be expected to purchase their own copies of certain essential texts. CLA-licensed digital course readings or course packs should not be used as an alternative to this. If you are unsure, please see the CLA User Guidelines (p16) or contact the Digitisation team for advice.

Notes

The Licence permits scanning from most material published in the U.K., Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland or Turkey and some material published in the USA. This list is subject to change.

  1. The Licence permits photocopying from most material published in the UK, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, and the USA. This list is subject to change.
  2. To see if a particular book or journal is covered, paste its ISBN, ISSN or title into the CLA's 'Check Permissions' tool.
  3. The Licence does not cover some types of material, for example newspapers, maps or printed music.
  4. The Licence does not usually authorise the reproduction and distribution of native digital material, e.g. electronic journals and material available on the Internet.

Credit for image on this page

'Copyright Wordle' by teachingsagittarian (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Accessed from Flickr 09/07/2015