Copyright

This page provides an introduction to copyright issues, concentrating on the most common ways in which they are likely to affect teaching and student provision within the Sociology Department and its Student Resource Centre (SRC).

(NB. The University website also provides links to information and guidance about intellectual property right and copyright issues) .

Copyright Legislation

 Copyright & The Resource Centre

An Introduction

Copyright is one of a number of ways in which Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are afforded protection (others include patenting, design rights, trade marks etc). Copyright covers published and unpublished literary and dramatic works, artistic and musical works, audio and video recordings, broadcasts and cable transmissions.

Intellectual Property refers to the output of creative endeavour e.g. ideas and/or information (generally presented in the form of articles, books etc).

Intellectual Property Rights refer to the legal ownership of the output of such creative endeavour. 

Copyright legislationexists to limit the ways and extent to which original works (e.g. texts/videos/photographs), whether published or unpublished, may be reproduced and subsequently distributed. This ensures that the authors/artists retain control over reproduction and distribution of their own work, and that they (and their publishers where relevant) receive any appropriate financial remuneration.  

In the university setting, the significance of copyright legislation is perhaps most evident in the restriction it places on the photocopying of original texts (articles/books/journals) for distribution to students. In the context of sometimes scarce resources, photocopying is an easy and common way of increasing student access to recommended or required reading. Copyright legislation places restrictions on the amount of an individual text that may be photocopied (see Blanket Licence), AND on labelling and record-keeping in relation to photocopied material.

The Blanket Licence for Higher Education

What is the Blanket Licence?:

Whenever you copy / distribute material that has been created by another party, you must have permission to do so. The Blanket Licence is part of an agreement between the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and the Higher Education Institutions to facilitate the copying of a wide range of material within the Higher Education sector, without the need to seek further authority/clearance. The University of Essex is covered by the Blanket Licence. 

What are the limitations imposed by the Blanket Licence?

The Blanket Licence places the following limitations on ALL COPYING (including photocopying for inclusion in course packs/readers), regardless of its purpose:

  • Up to one chapter from any given book, or one article from a journal or periodical OR
  • 5% of a given work, whichever is greater
  • A poem, short story or short literary work is regarded as a work in itself, but may be copied under the Licence subject to a maximum of 10 pages. HOWEVER, essays and articles do not constitute works in themselves as defined here, as this would unreasonably hinder their use within educational settings.

Are there any exceptions to the Blanket Licence?

CATEGORIES OF EXCLUDED MATERIAL (Extract from CLA Photocopying Licence Agreement – First Schedule)

The following items are NOT covered by the Licence:

  • Printed music
  • Maps, charts or books of tables
  • Texts of public examination papers whether published individually or in collections
  • Workbooks, work cards and assignment sheets
  • Privately owned documents issued for tuition purposes and limited to clientele who pay fees
  • Bibles, liturgical works, orders of service
  • Newspapers (for which a licence is available from the Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd.)
  • Industrial house journals and other free publications primarily for employees of commercial businesses, industrial undertakings or public services
  • Separate illustrations, diagrams and photographs
  • Any work on which the copyright owner has expressly and prominently stipulated that it may not be copied under this Licence
  • Works published outside the Mandating Territories

NB. For copyright clearance on excluded items, see CLARCS below.

CLARCS (CLA's Rapid Clearance Service):

What is CLARCS?
  • CLARCS is a copyright clearance system via which permission can be obtained to copy from books, journals and periodicals which are not covered by the Blanket Licence (above). Digitisation licences can also be obtained for the purpose of scanning paper originals into a computer. 
  • The cost of clearance is determined by the fee for the individual item (e.g. chapter/article) which is set by the publisher.

A 5-step guide to obtaining clearance from CLARCS:

  1. Produce a list of the articles etc you want to copy /scan (title, page numbers, author, ISBN number).
  2. Contact Dianne Allison for the following information you will need to supply:
    • A 5-digit order number.
    • University account number. 
    • Department Code.
  3.  Fax your list to CLARCS (fax no. 0207 5805672), with a cover sheet asking for a quote on cost, and include the information above (2). 
    A CLARCS operator will then fax your list back quoting prices.
  4.  If you are happy with what the quote you receive,  call CLARCS on 0207 6315560. Ask them for clearance to go ahead, and request that the invoice be sent to Dianne Allison, quoting the 5 digit order number (2). 
  5.  CLARCS will issue you with an authorisation number which you should pass on to Dianne Allison as soon as possible.

If you have any problems during this procedure. please contact dma@essex.ac.uk for further advice and assistance.

Video recording and the video collection

Recording:

  • Off-air recordings (or extracts thereof), made at home or on-site, may be used for educational purposes under the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) licence, providing they are correctly labelled and are not shown to fee-paying audiences or non-registered students.
  • Any number of copies may be made/held providing they are used only as indicated and are not altered in any way.
  • All recordings must be labelled in accordance with the ERA guidelines (labels must indicate the date, time and title of the recording and contain the statement 'This recording is to be used only under the terms of the ERA Licence').

The Video Library:

  • The Video Library exists to provide students with recorded documentary and film reference material to support their academic studies.
  • The vast majority of recording for the library is done by the university's teaching services unit at the request of the department, subject to the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) Licence.
  • Recordings made by staff may also be included in the library, providing they are used only as indicated, properly labelled, and are not altered in any way.
  • Recordings for inclusion in the video library should be submitted via Rowena Macaulay, Student Support Services Officer, in order for their details to be recorded on database.

Copyright and the Internet

General Introduction

The World Wide Web IS subject to copyright.

As a rule of thumb, electronic information (i.e. digital and/or web-based information) should be thought of similarly to hard copy (paper) information for the purposes of copyright. The Internet does not provide for a bypass of copyright responsibilities; electronic copying (like any other copying) needs the permission of the copyright holder, or a licence. It is an infringement of copyright to make an electronic copy without permission.

Web pages and the articles, graphics (even sound bites) they contain, are all classed as literary works. Each World Wide Web page can contain many different copyrights. The consent of the copyright holder is required for each act of copying.

Copying by browsing

Copying starts when you start browsing since copies are (automatically) made onto your computer's RAM (as temporary files ect). However, providing you are authorised to access the page in question, copies of this type at least are likely to be permitted, though there's no clear ruling yet.

Printing from a Web page

IT CANNOT BE ASSUMED THAT ANY OTHER ONLINE COPYING IS OK. To print a web page, or copy-and-paste anything from a web page into your own document, the permission of the copyright owner needs to be obtained. In some cases, it may already have been granted – check the details of any copyright notice contained on the web page.

Getting permission

The Copyright Licensing Agency has no licensing jurisdiction over material on the Internet (CLA regulations only govern photocopying from paper publications onto paper).

Copyright information should be sought on the site itself (an advantage of web-based information is that a copyright statement is commonly included, so it can be easier to ascertain whether or not authority is granted). If their is no copyright notice on the web page, specific permission needs to be obtained, usually by emailing the webmaster of the page.

PDF files (Portable Document Files)

These support the easy capture and printing of web-based information. HOWEVER it cannot be assumed that the author, in providing information in pdf format, is thereby permitting downloading. Explicit written permission should still be looked for on the website or requested from the site author.

Scanning/Digitisation Licences

Scanning articles/images first published on paper into a computer without the consent of the copyright holder is likely to be an infringement of copyright. Permission to scan a growing range of material can be obtained under digitisation licences from the CLA, under the CLARCS system, although there is currently no equivalent to the CLA's blanket photocopying licence. Digitisation licences are individual 'transactions'.
Guidance on applying for a digitisation licence.

Course Boxes and Copyright

The Resource Centre course boxes house photocopied extracts of texts that are either general, recommended or required course reading, in order to maximise student access to such reading at times when demands on library books are high. As such, they constitute a short loan collection.

Photocopied articles/chapters MAY be placed in the course boxes and thereafter photocopied by students for their own use (and these copies subsequently taken away), PROVIDING each individual text falls within the CLA Blanket Licence.

What are the limitations on course box contents?

Limitations defined by the CLA Blanket Licence, in sum:

Each individual item submitted to a course box must not exceed...

  • One chapter from any given book, or one article from a journal or periodical, OR
  • 5% of a given work, whichever is greater.
  • AND must not include any material excluded from the CLA Licence  e.g. copies of newspaper articles (for full list click here); any work which specifies on its cover that it is excluded.

Guidelines for submitting material to the course boxes 

The contents of the course boxes are governed by the provisions of the CLA Higher Education Licence Agreement (1998, section 3(j)), the relevant details of which are incorporated here:

Each photocopied article or extract contained in the course boxes must have a front page attached, giving full bibliographic details AND the course/s of study for which it is intended to be used.

Each photocopied article or extract contained in the course boxes must itself have been:

  1. copied from licensed material held within the University of Essex (and a statement to this effect noted on the front page), OR
  2. supplied by a copyright fee-paid document supply service (with original cover sheet attached), OR
  3. authorised in writing by the relevant rights holder (with copy attached)

Any new material intended for the course boxes must be submitted via Rowena Macaulay, Student Support Services Officer, in order for its details to be recorded on database.

It is the responsibility of the relevant academic staff for a given course to check on a regular basis that the contents of the boxes are clearly indicated and do not contravene CLA guidelines.

Individual copies of course packs may be kept in the Resource Centre alongside course boxes, but for reference only. They may not be photocopied or removed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1. Page One of the Higher Education Copying Accord states that ' A poem, short story or short literary work is regarded as a 'work' in itself, and may not be copied in its entirety under Section 29 of the Act, but may be copied under the Licence as long as a maximum of ten pages is not exceeded'.

Following from this, does a single essay in a collection of essays by different authors (i.e. within an edited volume, constitute a 'short literary work' under section 29? If so, does this mean that we may not treat such an essay as we would a chapter in any other book (with a single author), but may only copy up to 10 pages of it?

A. Essays and articles do not constitute works in themselves as defined here, as this would unreasonably hinder their use within educational settings.

We are therefore licensed to copy, in its entirety, an essay from within an edited collection, or an article from a journal.

Q.2. Can applications for CLARCS clearance be retrospective? Some staff felt that if applications must always be made in advance, it would deny them any level of spontaneity in taking decisions about 'required reading' as term progresses?

A. Every clearance is a mini-agreement in itself, between CLARCS and the applicant. On paper, retrospective applications almost certainly constitute an infringement of regulations.

Q.3. If the Blanket Licence does not cover newspaper articles, does this mean that these may not be copied at all, or that CLARCS clearance must be sought, or that they may be freely copied without restriction?

A. Newspapers are subject to copyright legislation, just like any other written material. However, CLARCS only covers books and articles. For a licence to copy newspaper articles, you should contact the The Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA), which has operated its own blanket licence agreement since 1996: www.nla.co.uk

Useful Web Links

The copyright web pages were compiled by Rowena Macaulay in 2001, and last updated in April 2004. They are the copyright of the Sociology Department at the University of Essex. Please note that these guidelines do not constitute a definitive statement of the law. Rowena is not a legal expert on copyright. 

Staff at Essex are authorised to print out these web pages locally if they wish. External readers should seek authorisation before doing so. Readers outside the UK should further note that their copyright legislation may differ.

Last modified on 06 November 2008