Copyright is an area of the law which is often misunderstood, and although straightforward in principle, in practice it can become complex which can lead to individuals and organisations finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. In order to minimise the risk of infringement which can lead to civil or criminal charges staff, students and partners are advised to refer to these guidelines and if in doubt email Learning Services for further advice or clarification.
Please note that it is the individual staff member's responsibility to ensure that they comply with copyright law. Copyright is a complex area and little is set in stone. It can take legal proceedings to clarify areas such as fair dealing, however no one wants to be a test case, so please ask if you are not sure.
Never assume that you can copy or use material for teaching or research without getting permission, just because your use is educational or non-commercial.
For further information, please visit our Copyright LibGuide.
A list of excluded works for which copying permission must be obtained directly from publishers is available from the CLA.
Please note: the licence covers photocopying and scanning for teaching purposes, but in order to comply with the reporting requirements all scanned readings must be prepared by Learning Services staff. Photocopies can however be prepared within a department provided they fall under the License.
Multiple photocopies can be made for and on behalf of registered students and contracted members of staff with the following provisos:
Copyright of images and diagrams included on a website is owned or licenced to the site owner (unless explicitly stated otherwise) and you should apply to them for permission to reproduce them.
Copying any material for the purposes of incorporation into Moodle, PowerPoint presentations or other teaching materials must either be covered by the Copyright Licensing Agency Licence, other HSU licences or be undertaken with specific permission from the rights holder.
You must keep a record of all permissions gained for any material copied which is not covered by the Copyright Licensing Agency or other licence agreement.
Each item must be fully acknowledged and a clear statement provided for each image or diagram.
Guidance from Jisc around copyright law and Generative AI.
An introduction to copyright law and practice in education, with particular reference to the use of Generative AI.
The government's code of practice on copyright and AI
A summary of the government's ongoing work to develop a code of practice on copyright and AI.
The embedding of copyright material in electronic presentations is restricted as it requires copying of the material. It could also involve a performance of the work when the presentation is publicly presented, and if recorded or made available on the open web, it will involve a communication to the public.
The showing, playing or performing of a copyright work for the purposes of instruction is allowed under a well-established exception (S34), but the audience must be limited to teachers, students and those directly connected with the activities of the establishment.
The exception of illustration for instruction (S32) is also likely to cover reproduction of textual extracts, figures from publications and extracts of audio-visual material in a teaching scenario, but the usage must be fair. It might also be possible to apply the criticism and review exception if the use of the copyright material is for genuine critical analysis.
However in cases where it is unclear if the proposed use of copyright material is covered by an exception, and the copyright holder has not given permission, you may need to make a decision based on an assessment of risk. Some useful questions to ask when assessing risk are:
You should exercise caution when determining whether exceptions apply. For example adding a number of images to a PowerPoint presentation may be considered fair for the purposes of showing them in a lecture, but if posting the presentation on Moodle increases the number of people who might access the images this could stop it from being regarded as fair.
If you are planning to record (or narrate) lectures or presentations and upload them to Moodle you will be required to have cleared rights in all third party material or rely on relevant statutory exceptions. You may need to apply a risk based approach where it is not possible to clear all the rights (e.g. use of orphan works for which it is not possible to clear rights) but be aware that the more widely available the content is, the higher the risk.