Copyright
Copyright is one of several Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Other examples include patents and trademarks. Intellectual Property (IP) is the results of intellectual effort or creativity. Legally, IP is treated as any other property, such as a house or car. IPR are the legal rights available to the owner of the IP, which allow him/her to protect his/her asset and control use by others. Copyright covers literary works, such as reports, software and books, artistic works, such as technical drawings and artwork, dramatic work, such as plays and film, and musical works. Copyright protection arises automatically, as soon as the work is created and does not need to be registered. Copyright generally lasts 70 years after the death of the author, or when the author is unknown or is a company, 70 years from the date of first publication of the work. Copyright allows the copyright owner to prevent unauthorised reproduction of the whole or part of the work.
The Designs and Patents Act 1988 governs the actions of both individuals and organisations. The Act covers copyright of material in print and on other media, including new and emerging technologies.
The Act makes two separate provisions to permit a certain amount of copying for the purposes of research or private study: 'fair dealing' and library privileges, the latter of which applies to libraries within non-profit making organisations, such as public and school libraries.
Fair Dealing
The Act does not actually define 'fair dealing' but states that:
Fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work for the purposes of research or private study does not infringe any copyright in the work. Where the work is a database, this only applies where the research is for a non-commercial purpose. The British Copyright Council (BCC) states that most UK authors and publishers will consider it fair for an individual to make a single copy of up to one chapter from a book or five percent of a literary work, if greater, for the purposes of research or private study. The BCC further states that a single copy of a whole poem or short story, of not more than ten pages and published in a book, will be deemed as fair.
Whilst fair dealing has no legal definition, guidance is included in the Act as to what does not constitute fair dealing; particularly that copying by a person other than the researcher or student him/herself is not fair dealing where that person knows that this will result in multiple copies being made.
Therefore, an individual who makes multiple copies, for a class of students for example, is always breaking the law under the fair dealing provision.
Library privileges
Certain libraries get special privileges under copyright law and, unlike fair dealing, these privileges are defined precisely. The main privilege available to libraries is that they are permitted to make copies of part of a published copyright work for readers, including copies of whole articles from a periodical. However, the privilege does not permit the library to make more than one copy of any material. Consequently, it is not legal, for example, for a school librarian to provide more than one student with the same article. Also, the student requiring the copy must:
- use it only for research or private study
- pay to the library a sum sufficient to cover the cost of reproduction, including a contribution to general library expenses
- sign a copyright declaration form.
Copyright licences
In order to overcome the need for schools to undertake multiple copying and free-to-student copying, schools require a photocopy licence. The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) is the UK's Reproduction Rights Organisation (RRO) responsible for licensing organisations, such as schools and libraries, to copy extracts from books, journals and periodicals.
Until 31 March 2000, state schools in England and Wales were covered by a CLA photocopying licence held by all LEAs. Since 1 April, CLA have been operating a new licensing scheme and each school must now have its own licence, which must be obtained from one of CLA's agents. Each licence runs for 12 months and is usually available from a LEA, as many act as CLA agents.
The new licence also offers schools two new copying types which are particularly useful in the context of teaching the Literacy Hour: enlargement and copying onto acetate, for which the school must also obtain a National Literacy Strategy (NLS) protocol to the main licence from their LEA. Full details regarding the new licence and protocol can be found on the CLA website.
Schools are also required to obtain licences for many of the activities pursued both during school time and in after school clubs. An at-a-glance guide to licensing in schools can also be found on the CLA website.
CLA have launched COPYWATCH, a major campaign to stop illegal copying and their website includes an interactive step-through questionnaire to discover if your organisation requires a CLA photocopying licence.
Copyright and the Internet
World Wide Web pages are subject to copyright law. Furthermore, each page may contain several different copyrights if it contains text, music, and graphics for example. Copying from the Internet starts when you begin browsing as copies are made onto the computer's random access memory (RAM). Hence, by viewing a page on screen you are, in fact, making a copy. Where the material has been put on the website with the consent of the copyright owners, it is reasonable to assume that an implicit licence exists for viewing. Making single copies of pages from a website is also likely to be acceptable unless a copyright statement on the site bans this. Children should be encouraged to look for copyright information on websites or to seek permission by contacting the webmaster.
However, there are many websites where copyright material has been posted illegally and any use of this material is also likely to be illegal. All Internet users must therefore make a judgement about the person or organisation that has established the website as well, i.e. whether it/they is/are likely to have had due regard to copyright law, in addition to reading the copyright notices on the website.
There is no specific law on hyperlinking. Emailing the webmaster of any website you wish to link to is the safest course of action, although hyperlinking to home pages only of other websites is most unlikely to be illegal. The exception to this is where the website clearly has copyright material on it illegally when hyperlinking even with permission could be illegal.
Electronic copying
Electronic use and copying are not considered to be the same as photocopying. Consequently, it is not legal to undertake activities such as scanning text or images from a paper original into a computer or posting material from the Web or a student's work onto the school intranet without the express permission of the copyright holder or a digitisation licence (see below). A school which has a CLA photocopying licence is not authorised for any digital use or digital storage. Scanning a short extract of text to make a single paper copy for research or private study may, however, fall within the scope of the fair dealing privilege.
The CLA digitisation licence permits licensees to digitise textual extracts from certain books and periodicals and to make them available to students and staff over a network. However, at present, the licence does not authorise digitisation of any artistic works, such as illustrations, diagrams or photographs and hence permission is required from the copyright holder.
Specific licences will be developed for specific sectors, including higher education, business and schools. Individual rightsholders will be asked to approve each new programme before it is launched, and UK rightsholders will shortly be consulted on the contents of the licences.
Radio and television copyright
Since 1990 the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) has operated its Licensing Scheme enabling educational use of copyright protected material in radio and television programmes. Once covered by an ERA Licence, staff in schools, colleges and universities can record broadcast programmes for repeat showing to students.
From 1 April 2005 ERA revised its Scheme to permit more flexible usage of recordings on-site via computer and internet technology. Now staff can:
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Use recordings with interactive whiteboards
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Transfer recordings onto a server for easier access via classroom computers
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Stream recordings to on-site computers for open-access learning
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Include recordings on virtual learning environments for use on site.
How to check you're licensed
Phone or email ERA giving the name of your LEA to find out if you're licensed. Email: era@era.org.uk Tel: 020 7837 3222.
