Teaching

An apple on a few books, pencils next to it and A, B, C building blocks next to that. All of them on a table against a white background

In the dynamic environment of Higher Education, lecturers play a pivotal role in shaping the minds of future generations, fostering creativity, and advancing knowledge through teaching, research, and scholarship. As lecturers, you engage with a vast array of copyrighted materials, from scholarly articles and literary works to images and multimedia content. Understanding the intricacies of copyright law is essential for ensuring ethical and compliant use of these materials, safeguarding the intellectual property of creators while enriching the learning experience for your students.

Unveiling copyright essentials: A foundation for informed use

UK copyright law serves as a cornerstone of intellectual property protection, granting creators exclusive rights over their works. These rights empower creators to control the reproduction, distribution, adaptation, and public performance of their works. By understanding the scope of copyright protection, you can make informed decisions about the use of copyrighted materials in your teaching, research, and scholarly endeavours.

Copyright ownership: Understanding the rights of creators

Copyright ownership generally arises automatically upon creation, and no registration is required to obtain copyright protection. The copyright holder holds exclusive rights over their work, including:

  • Reproduction: Creating copies of the work in any tangible form, such as print, digital, or audio visual formats.
  • Distribution: Making copies of the work available to the public, such as through sale, rental, or lending.
  • Adaptation: Creating derivative works based on the original work, such as translations, arrangements, or modifications.
  • Public Performance: Presenting the work to the public through live performances, screenings, or broadcasts.
  • Communication to the Public: Making the work available to the public through digital means, such as through online platforms or streaming services.

In many cases, the University pays for licenses for the normal unfolding of teaching and learning. There will also be times where, as a lecturer, you might need to rely on exceptions.

In case no license or exception is available, it is possible that you or the University will be liable for copyright infringement. The risk of infringement in the normal teaching performance is usually low, but not zero and could lead to financial or reputation damage, to yourself or the University. If in doubt, get in touch with the Copyright and Licensing Manager, at copyright@lboro.ac.uk.

Licenses for teaching and learning the University subscribes to

While teaching at the University, you will be covered by some of these licenses.

Type of licence

What's covered

CLA (Copyright Licensing Agency)

Copies of up to one chapter/article of 10%
(whichever is the greater) from books,
journals and magazines.

ERA (Educational Recording Agency)

Recordings from UK TV and radio
broadcasts (provided by BoB - On
Demand).

NLA Media Access (Newspaper Licensing
Agency)

Links and copies of articles from
newspapers.

Electronic library resources

Allows you to access e-books, journals, and other databases for your non-commercial study or research.

You can freely use copyright material under Creative Commons license, please make sure that you follow the terms of the respective license.

If there is no license to allow you to use copyright material in your teaching, you will need to do one of the following:

  • Ask for permission from the copyright holder;
  • Determine if your activity is covered by a copyright exception.

Exceptions to copyright protection: Striking a balance

While copyright law safeguards the interests of creators, it also recognizes the need for fair dealing and other exceptions to ensure the dissemination of knowledge and creativity. These exceptions allow for the use of copyrighted materials without the express permission of the copyright holder under specific circumstances:

  • Fair Dealing: Use of copyrighted material for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, provided that the use is transformative and does not significantly impact the potential market for the original work.
  • Quotation: Limited use of copyrighted material to support an original work, provided that the quotation is properly attributed and does not exceed the scope of fair dealing.
  • Parody: Use of copyrighted material for humorous or transformative purposes, provided that the parody is sufficiently distinctive and does not undermine the reputation of the original work.

Name of exception

Purpose

Activities covered

CDPA section

Quotation

Allows anyone to
reproduce
copyright works
for the purpose of
quotation where
it is fair.

Includes
presenting
extracts from
books, journals
and musical
works to students.

Potential use of
whole works
where the use is
fair.

Section 30

Accessible
copying

Allows individuals
or institutions to provide equal
access to
copyright works
for users with any type disability.

Digitising print
material.

Format shifting
text to audio.

Creating subtitles
for videos.

Sections 31A-F

Illustration for
instruction

Allows teachers
or students to
use copyright
work in teaching
or study where
the use is fair.

Including text,
images, music or
video in teaching
slides and lecture
recordings.

Adding content to
examination
papers.

Section 32

Educational
performance

Allows any
copyright work
that can be
performed,
played or shown
in an educational
setting to be
performed played
or shown.

Screening a film
in a lecture,
playing musical
sound recordings
in class,
performance of a
play in class (i.e.
not for an
external
audience).

Section 34

Recording of
broadcasts

Allows
educational
establishment to
record TV and
radio broadcasts
and make them
available to
students.

Underpins the
University’s use
of BoB Online TV
streaming service.

Section 35

Making multiple
copies

Allows
educational
institutions to
copy up to 5% of a copyright work
and supply
multiple copies to
students.

Copying of book
extracts not
covered by the
CLA licence.

Copying up to
5% of a film or
sound recording
and making it
available to
students on LEARN.

Section 36

Copyright in teaching and learning: Empowering educators

As lecturers, you play a crucial role in ensuring ethical and compliant use of educational materials in your teaching and learning activities:

  • Copyright ownership in educational materials: In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the copyright and/or database right in material produced by staff members in the course of their duties rests with the University. This includes, but is not limited to, teaching material, internal reports, policies, etc. Performance rights and moral rights exist independently of copyright and these rights are not affected.
  • Fair dealing and other copyright exceptions: Familiarize yourself with fair dealing provisions and other copyright exceptions that may allow for the use of copyrighted materials without permission in educational settings.
  • Strategies for integrating copyrighted materials into lesson plans: Integrate copyrighted materials responsibly, ensuring that your use aligns with fair dealing principles and does not undermine the potential market for the original work.
  • Copyright and open educational resources (OER): Explore and utilize OER, which are freely available educational materials that are licensed for open use, sharing, and adaptation.
  • Copyright awareness and training: Encourage copyright awareness among your students and signpost students to the copyright pages, as well as advise them to attend copyright training sessions.

Uploading content to LEARN: A review of best practice

Under copyright law you can share the same types of content with your students online that you are allowed to use during your lecture, as long as:

  • The use is fair;
  • Relevant to your teaching.

We advise that you use hyperlinks to link to external sources rather than downloading and uploading a copy to LEARN.

If the extract is on YouTube you can embed the link into your Powerpoint slides or Panopto, which avoids copying the material. Enhanced Academic Practice (EAP) will be able to help you with this. Material from YouTube or any other social media, should not be downloaded and subsequently uploaded to LEARN without the prior consent of the copyright holder(s).  

More information on how to use LEARN can be found on the Technology Enhanced Learning SharePoint. 

Please make sure that in your PowerPoint presentations you credit accordingly any images, text or musical quotations. This is good academic practice and teaches students about copyright and good citation practice.

If you cannot remember where you obtained an image from, you can use a reverse image search such as TinEye Reverse Image Search. The oldest record of the image is more likely to be the original with the correct details. 

There are multiple sites which offer images/cartoons/illustration either copyright free or under a Creative Commons license. See the section Sourcing Materials for more information. 

Please be aware that logos or cartoon characters may be registered as a trademark. 

We recommend you use reading lists to share resources with your students. You can find more information about how to request new materials, create and update your reading lists and best practice for reading lists.   

Please refer to https://www.lboro.ac.uk/internal/review/how-to/copyright/Loughborough University's Lecture Capture policy which discusses the recording of lectures and copyright related issues. For a more detailed explanation of copyright issues in relation to lecture capture please refer to the Copyright guidelines for ReVIEW capture. Please note that if you wish to use third party copyright material within your lecture slides but are concerned about potential copyright infringement when being recorded, then just pause the recording when you are showing this content. The ReView system does not include any paused or edited information in the final recording.

There is guidance and self-paced online resources available to help you with the use of learning technologies. 

Students can register with SWAI (Student Wellbeing and Inclusion) who will arrange for access to suitable material in alternative formats for their study.

There is also information available on the library webpages for accessibility support. Users can contact the Content and Provision team for further information. 

You can show films or play recorded audio to students without the need for a license in the following cases:

  • There are shown during the lecture in lecture and seminar rooms, for educational purposes;
  • Online teaching events as long as you only provide password protected access to students and they are residents in the UK, and only for and during the normal educational process.

Reasoning behind this is that there are education exceptions which cover these types of purposes. To show a film at a film festival, student society event, open lecture or any other extra-curricular event you will need to apply for a license from the appropriate agency. Failure to do so will infringe copyright and you will be liable to reparations. It is your duty to make sure you have the appropriate permissions and licenses. Please see Filmbank licenses and the Motion Picture License for more information.  

We also have a handy guide available for you to download.

The University subscribes to Box of Broadcasts (BoB) where you can create playlists of TV and radio extracts for students to access.  Further information can be found on the Learning on Demand SharePoint page.

A wonderful resource is also the Learning on Screen webpage which offers guides on Fair Practice when screening audio visual content, video essay guides and audio visual citation guidelines. 

If you have any other questions, do get in touch with the Copyright and Licensing Manager. 

You may perform or get others to perform musical, literary or dramatic works (third-party works) – in front of an audience without a licence as long as these are closed sessions for your students. If the audience includes other people, such as family, friends or members of the public, you may need a licence.

  • Public performance of music: the performance of live and recorded music for commercial purposes is licensed in the UK by PRS for Music and PPL. You may need to get permission from the copyright owner to upload musical performances to some online platforms, but this depends on the context.
  • Public performance of literary work: under UK copyright law you are allowed to recite “reasonable" quotes from books and journals in public without needing a licence. You may record the reading or recitation and share it online, as long as the quoted material is only a small part of the overall recording.
  • Public performance of dramatic works: you or your students will need to get permission from the copyright owner if you want to publicly perform a whole play, musical or opera. You can contact theatrical agents such as Concord Theatricals to arrange permission if you need it.

If the performance has been created by students for their course, no licence is required and the musical, literary or dramatic work can be performed in front of an open audience.

Contact us if you have any questions. 

Unauthorised copies of teaching materials shared by students: Actions to take

The Copyright staff and Legal Services have noticed in recent years an increase in the number of University owned materials being illegally uploaded onto external websites. Thus, working together to support you we have put together a guidance note to help you identify infringing material and support you in the process of removing it from external websites. The guide and example takedown notice can be accessed in the resources section and is entitled Copyright infringement take down note August 2021.

As an academic at Loughborough University, if you come across content that you have created, which is being hosted on an external website, then you may need to look into issuing a takedown notice.  Examples of content could include your teaching materials such as lecture slides, worksheets, handouts or reading lists. As the creator of this content, you are in the best position to recognise your materials and assess whether they have been uploaded onto an external website without authorisation. This can be difficult for other members of the university to determine. For example, a student's typed lecture notes may appear to be University owned materials, but in fact the student may own the copyright of these notes and can legally upload them onto external websites. Before a takedown notice can be issued, you will need to be certain that you have created the work, and it has been uploaded without authorisation. For more details, please refer to the guide and example takedown notice in the resources section.  

Copyright law serves as a crucial tool for safeguarding the rights of creators while fostering a vibrant intellectual ecosystem. As higher education lecturers, you play a pivotal role in shaping the minds of future generations, fostering creativity, and advancing knowledge through teaching, research, and scholarship. By understanding the intricacies of copyright law, you can make informed decisions about the use of copyrighted materials, protect your own intellectual property, and contribute to a culture of ethical and responsible use of creative works. Embark on your journey of copyright literacy and become a copyright-conscious lecturer, empowering your students to thrive in a world of knowledge and innovation.

Some of the guidance is adapted from University of Oxford Copyright Guidance by Chris Morrison and Angela Groth-Seary which was adapted from the University of Kent Copyright Guidance (2020) https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent%2F01.02.92664, and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0).