Digital Copyright

The term 'Digital Copying' is used to define any copying in an electronic format e.g. scanning from printed material to keep electronically, copying material from other websites, burning onto CD or just sending a fax.

Copyright law applies to electronic copying as it does to print, and was brought into UK Law with the implementation of the EU Copyright Directive on 31st October 2003 as 'The Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003'

Internet and Intranets

A common conception is that everything on the 'World Wide Web' is free to use because it is freely accessible, but this is completely false. Internet web sites contain various creative materials e.g literary, artistic, film, photographs, music or even qualify as a database, and as such are protected by copyright.

Most websites carry a copyright statement or terms/conditions, indicating which uses are acceptable or require permission. Permission may be attached in the form of a 'Creative Commons Licence' which allows a copyright owner to permit certain uses of a work by attaching certain licensing symbols, without completely waiving his/her rights.

If no statement or licence is available, do not assume that copyright is not attached.

Permission must be sought before copying.

It is copyright infringement to post any material onto a website, regardless of the accessibility, without the permission of the copyright owner or under licence.

This also applies to student work as a student retains copyright ownership in all his/her work, unless a signed contract exists to the contrary.

All copied material must be attributed to the creator/author and publisher, the source, and if copied with permission or under a University held licence, details must be attached to this effect e.g. Name of organisation or licensing body, date permission granted and duration (usually duration of the course/module e.g. one semester or one year).

 

Hyper linking

Simply linking from one website to another, may not infringe copyright, providing the material is not then displayed in such a manner that would suggest the material is your own creation, otherwise known as 'passing off'. Hence the material should always be opened as a new page, as opposed to a frame within your web page.

As a matter of courtesy and good practice, a permission request or notification should always be sent to the website owner prior to linking. Many websites host advertisements for which the organisations receive revenue calculated by 'hits'. In these cases, the web site owners prefer all links to be made to the 'home page' or the page displaying these adverts rather than directly to the page of your choice. Increasingly, organisations are including permissions or restrictions for linking in their website 'Terms of Use' or 'Copyright policies', therefore these should be referrred to in the first instance.

If permission is not sought, the web site owner could request a fee, or that the link be removed. This is commonly referred to as a 'take down' request.

Logos or Trademarks should never be used without permission even as a linking tool. Apart from infringing copyright and this can mislead a user into thinking that there is an affiliation with the organisation.

 

Fair Dealing

Fair dealing under (CDPA 1988 S.29(2)) would not apply to posting material on the internet or intranets as it is a form of publishing or communicating to the public, not for the purpose of an individual's non-commercial research or private study .

However, it may fall under (CDPA 1988 S.30(1)) if the genuine purpose of copying is criticism or review of the work, as this provision actually requires the work to be communicated to the public with full acknowledgement.

Similarly emailing an item to another individual is also an infringement.

Faxing by librarians to an individual can be acceptable provided that the originating copy is subsequently destroyed in order that only the recipient's copy remains.

Practical guidelines on fair dealing for an individual's non-commercial research or private study, have been published by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and the PA (Publishers Association) and are available at:

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/papers/pa/licence/fairnote.html

*NB: Fair dealing is not a legal right but a defence.

 

Course materials

The University holds the CLA Photocopy and Scanning HE Licence

As well as permitting photocopying from all CLA Licenced materials owned by the university, this licence enables the digitising/scanning of material from mandated UK and some overseas publications, for electronic
delivery to students of designated courses/modules over a secure network providing the licence limitations and requirements are adhered to.

The limitations of the licence for both photocopying and scanning are:

No more than

• one chapter from a book
  
• one article from a journal or periodical
  
• one single case report from a Law Report
  
  or

No More than 5% of a given work, whichever is the greater.

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 CLA Licence as long as a maximum of 10 pages is not exceeded.

 

The main requirements of this licence are:

• Scanning must be performed by a designated person notified to the Copyright Officer (no limit in how many persons and not named but posts specified).
  
  
• Scanning must be from original materials owned by the University (either Library or departmental) or 'Copyright Fee Paid' copies obtained from the British Library.
  
  
• Electronic copies must retain the integrity and appearance of the original document.
  
  
• If an electronic version of the required item is commercially available, a valid reason for our wish to scan must be given to the CLA. ('Budgetary constraints' is acceptable).
  
  
• Each copy of a document must have attached a copyright notice.
  
  
• Scanned material must be accessible only to students registered on the specified
  module/s and affiliated staff via a secure network i.e. Oasis+.
  
  
• All scanning must be reported to the Copyright Officer using the CLA Digital Copy Record Sheet in order to collate the information from all areas, into one main report to be submitted to the CLA.
  
  
• The CLA Compliance Unit will require access to all electronic module readers for
  auditing purposes.
  

Digital copies can be requested from another CLA Scanning Licensed FE or HE Institutions or from the British Library specifically for Oasis+ course reading material.

Unencrypted PDF files can be ordered from the British Library HE Scanning Service (BLHESS) via the Learning Resources Inter-Library Loans Service.

As with scanned material, a Copyright Notice must be attached to each item received before inclusion on the Oasis+ web pages and each item reported to the Copyright Officer using the CLA Digital Copy Record Sheet

For all materials not mandated by the CLA (see CLA Excluded Works lists), Copyright permission must be obtained from the Publisher/Copyright Owner unless specific permission is already granted, and a Permissions Copyright Notice or a brief statement giving permission details is attached i.e. Permission granted by ...............................................on ..............

(ALWAYS retain the original permission correspondence)

For copyright clearance/permissions assistance or advice, please contact the University Copyright Officer, Kate Vasili on ext: 3508 or by email: K.Vasili@mdx.ac.uk

Further details regarding all Copyright matters are also available on the University Copyright web pages at: http://www.lr.mdx.ac.uk/copyright/