Yes, the law contains exceptions to copyright for the purposes of (among others):

• Quotation, criticism and review of published material

• Illustration for instruction (teaching)

• Performing, playing or showing a work for educational purposes

However there are some important conditions attached to these exceptions:

• The material must be lawfully obtained.

• Usage for the purposes of quotation, criticism and review and illustration for instruction must be ‘fair dealing’ and accompanied by appropriate attribution.

• Illustration for instruction must be ‘non-commercial’. (It is generally considered that teaching at universities is non-commercial).

• Performing, playing or showing a work for educational purposes must be within normal academic activities and limited to an audience of only staff and students within the institution. These activities should not be recorded and made available online.

Whether use of copyright material is considered fair dealing is a case by case judgement based on the extent and amount of copying being reasonable for the purpose of the exception and ensuring that the copying will not financially disadvantage the copyright holder. For a further explanation of fair dealing, please see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright#fair-dealing

There are some additional licences and resources available that give permission to use material beyond the scope of the copyright exceptions including:

• CLA Licence - you can make chapters or articles available to your students on Blackboard via the library scanning service.

• ERA Licence for off-air TV and radio recordings (available via Box of Broadcasts) – restricted to UK and CCCU educational use only.

• The NLA licence allows CCCU staff to make copies from UK national newspapers and upload them to Blackboard or to email copies to students and other staff.

• Library purchased electronic resources such as Kanopy (licence terms vary by resource/publisher, please contact the library via library.copyright@canterbury.ac.uk for guidance on a specific resource).

• Creative Commons (CC) – allows copying and reuse of work with various conditions specified. Open educational resources (OER) are usually made available under a CC licence variant.

• Public Domain - material where copyright has expired can be used in its entirety. Different types of material have different durations of copyright, please visit https://www.copyrightuser.org/create/public-domain/duration/ for further guidance.

• Content on the gov.uk website is made available under the Open Government Licence.

• Obtain direct permission from the copyright holder (must be documented).

If the images are not essential for explaining or demonstrating educational content, it is unlikely that the use could be argued to be allowable under the illustration for instruction exception. Do not indiscriminately copy and paste images from the internet. Use Creative Commons image search or library resources such as Britannica to find images that may allow reuse for any purpose. Alternatively, you can create your own images.

They will need to grant you permission (you should have this documented as proof) and you should attribute as appropriate. You should also check that the copyright in the material has not been assigned to a publisher, especially with regards to journal articles.

Yes, provided you have followed the guidance in the section above, uploading your slides to Blackboard should not infringe any copyright.

Do not upload any files downloaded from library online resources. We advise that you always use hyperlinks to content, as this ensures that any access is authorised. Most licences for library online resources only allow authorised users to download a journal article or section of an e-book solely for their personal research.

The library resources can usually provide links for you to use that will seamlessly authenticate students, allowing them access and taking them directly to a journal article or e-book. It is even possible to create a link to a specific page or chapter for some e-books. Please contact library.eresources@canterbury.ac.uk if you would like specific advice.

Not directly. The library scanning service must be used to make scanned journal articles or extracts from books available via Blackboard. This is required to ensure we comply with the terms of the CLA Educational licence.

An article, chapter or 10% of a book can be requested. The library will make the scan available, report to the CLA and provide you with a link for the scan to add to Blackboard. Full details of the scanning service are available on our scanning services page. 

Sometimes. The NLA Education Licence allows articles to be copied from UK national newspapers and for these articles to be uploaded to Blackboard.

Website content is still subject to copyright and availability does not necessarily indicate such items are free from copying restrictions. We advise that you always use hyperlinks to web content. Do not download and upload files unless you have permission from the copyright holder, or such use and distribution is allowed under licence.

For example:

• Documents available online are sometimes provided under a Creative Commons (CC) licence, ensure you comply with the terms of the licence (more details are available below).
• Most content on gov.uk is subject to Crown copyright protection and is published under the Open Government Licence (OGL).
• Items downloaded from institutional repositories may have a copyright statement on the cover sheet, which sets out terms of re-use.

Ensure that you comply with the terms and conditions of the source website, be diligent in checking that the website is legitimate and reliable and is not hosting unauthorised copies or other copyright infringing material.

Alternatively, you can copy the portion of the work required for illustrating an educational point, subject to fair dealing (see above).

Please contact library.copyright@canterbury.ac.uk if you need advice on a specific item.

There are conditions and limitations to the education exceptions to copyright law that become relevant when recording takes place, as the act of recording creates a further copy of the content being used.

The following three questions explore this further.

Pause the ReCap recording. You can show a DVD for teaching as this is covered by the exception that allows performing a work for educational purposes. However, this exception does not allow for the material to be copied. As the ReCap software will make a poor quality copy, the CCCU guidance is that recording should be paused when video or audio media is played in class and where possible provide links in Blackboard to the content.

Pause the ReCap recording and provide a link in Blackboard to the content on the host website. Use discretion when linking to content on YouTube or similar services. Content uploaded to YouTube without the copyright holders’ permission is likely to be removed. For example, use official content such as the TED YouTube channel rather than A.N. Other’s upload of TED content.

Yes, but pause the ReCap recording. You can play commercial sound recordings in their entirety for teaching as this is covered by the exception that allows performing a work for educational purposes. However, this exception does not allow for the material to be copied.

Short clips of audio used for educational purposes are likely to be covered by the illustration for instruction exception. As the ReCap software will make a poor quality copy, the CCCU guidance is that recording should be paused when video or audio media is played in class and where possible provide links in Blackboard to the content.

If the material is unpublished, always seek (and document) permissions from the creator of the work. Do not use copyright material of unknown origin or without attribution. Avoid large extracts of material and relying heavily on a single source for the bulk of a lecture. Do not share material publically via the Internet, use Blackboard.

Yes, you can copy and make suitable alterations to material if there is a physical or mental impairment that prevents you (or someone you are acting on behalf of) from accessing the work in its original format. For example, creating a magnified copy with larger print or a digital version that can be read by a screen reader.

You can copy the work if the original is legally held by the person you are acting on behalf of, yourself or the library. Further information is available in this Intellectual Property Office pdf guide

Creative Commons licences allow content creators to grant more permissive rights for the use of the material under certain conditions. Look for a CC symbol and specification of the licence conditions.

For example, CC BY-NC indicates the licence permits copying with Attribution (BY) for Non-Commercial (NC) purposes. The work can be copied, edited or built upon for non-commercial purposes, but the original creator(s) must be credited.

Make sure you use content correctly and comply with the terms of the licence. Visit creativecommons.org for more details on the different types of licence conditions.

CCCU will be held liable for any content uploaded to Blackboard and made available via ReCap. In most cases infringement will initially be dealt with by the copyright holder requesting that the offending material is removed (a take-down notice). Financial recompense may be sought by the copyright holder if they believe that the infringement results in a loss of revenue.