Whether you are a student or member of staff at Birmingham City University, the following is provided to give a better understanding of copyright and help you stay within the law when using copyrighted materials.
Use the tabs above to find basic information on common copyright issues regarding key material types and licences held by Library and Learning Resources.
This guidance does not claim to be comprehensive or a substitute for legal advice. If you need further assistance please contact Tom Rowley (see panel below)
If you need advice or guidance on any issue relating to Copyright and your activities at BCU, please feel free to make a booking for a 30min consultation
Why do we have copyright law?
The law of copyright exists to protect the intellectual standing and economic rights of creators and publishers. UK Copyright law is set out in the Copyright, Design and Patents Act (1988) and its amendments.
UK Copyright protection:
is automatic upon creation of an original work
covers the following types of works: original literary, typographical, dramatic, music or artistic, sound recordings, films and broadcasts
By default, rests with the author/creator of the work, but can be passed to others (e.g. employer/publisher) by contract.
generally lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author dies.
Listen to our new Copyright Podcast where we talk about the concept of Fair Dealing.
PDFs:
Any article or book chapter that you wish to make available for your students must be requested via the Digital Library team who will create a high quality, accessible link under the CLA HE licence.
Full Works:
Images:
Deeplinks:
The use of deeplinks should be avoided.
https://www.bcu.ac.uk/education-and-social-work/research/birmingham-music-education-bmerg/research-projects/comparing-composition-teaching-and-learning-in-secondary-school-education-in-the-uk-and-germany (a deeper link) might not be.
Note: This is just an example, deeplinks to BCU pages are fine to include on your Moodle pages and in your teaching resources.
You can check the terms and conditions of the website you wish to link to, some will say that linking to any part of their site is allowed, some will expressly forbid deeplinking, and some may not have any specific terms about it. In the last instance, if it does not expressly state their rules, assume that deeplinking is not allowed for that site.
YouTube and Videos:
General Referencing:
Image Referencing:
If you find yourself in a situation where you believe it would help to track the IP rights of a copyright work then the links below may be helpful:
Copying is permitted when:
you are the author/creator of the work (except where copyright has passed to an employer or publisher).
you have written permission to copy from the rights holder(s) or their agent.
the work is out of copyright, in the Public Domain, or under a suitable Creative Commons Licence.
the work and amount copied is permitted under one of our University Licences
the copying is permitted under an exception to the Copyright act and falls within the limitations of 'Fair Dealing'