The following section will give you some guidance on how you can give the best access to different types of resources and media for your module on ELE whilst remaining within copyright.
If you need help with any aspect of copyright then please do get in touch with the University Copyright Officer.
E-mail: copyright@exeter.ac.uk
If you need help identifying, sourcing or accessing resources please contact your Liaison Librarian.
Find your Librarian
The Library offers a reading list service which digitises your Word or .pdf list so that it links to catalogue records, full text resources, webpages and video. They scan chapters and articles where legal and deal with all the copyright issues for you. The list is made available from a dedicated block within your ELE module.
To find out more contact the team at: readinglists@exeter.ac.uk
You can link to the library catalogue records of books to show their location and availability at the University.
To do this:
E-books mean that students can access the book from anywhere at any time. There are still restrictions on downloading and printing but not reading.
Remember when you order books you can tick the box on the order form to have an e-copy if one is available.
When linking to them on ELE bear the following things in mind:
If you wish to scan a chapter of a book and put it up as a .pdf in your module you need to bear the following things in mind:
You can link to the catalogue records of journal titles to show their location and availability.
To do this:
If you wish to scan a journal article and put it up as a .pdf in your module you need to bear the following things in mind:
Under our licence you can save .pdfs from online journals and then put them up in ELE.
However please bear these points in mind:
Copyright applies to many aspects of newspaper content, for example copyright pertains to the articles themselves, images, adverts, the font , the layout etc.
It is illegal to scan newspaper articles and put them up in your module, even partial articles or just the images.
Instead, link to the article via one of our subscribed databases available via the Databases. One of the best services to use is Nexis UK, which covers all the major UK tabloids and broadsheets.
We also have subscriptions to many historical and some international newspaper collections.
Our NLA Licence
The University subscribes to an NLA Licence.
The licence is specific as to the list (repertoire) of newspapers it covers - broadly, the national dailies and Sundays. There is also a supplementary list of regional/local titles that can be added to the licence.
The University requires a licence for administrative and teaching purposes; public relations and internal management activities require routine circulation of cuttings, while teaching staff may wish to use extracts from newspapers as teaching materials.
Members of the University are allowed to:
The licence does not cover photographs and advertisements or reproduction of the whole of a newspaper.
Each copy made within the University as part of its internal clippings service or for its students must be prominently endorsed with a notice in lettering no smaller than 6pt and saying “With permission, copied from [title of relevant newspaper] dated……”
For more details about the licence go to the NLA Website or contact copyright@exeter.ac.uk .
The website versions of many newspapers such as the Times or Guardian are often archived behind a paywall having initially been freely available. They also will ask for a subscription to read the complete articles.
Please note that it is illegal to copy and paste an online news story into a Word document or .pdf and continue to provide access to it when it is no longer freely available online.
It is best to provide a link out to the article if it is online or look to see if it available via our subscribed news services such as Nexis UK via our Databases
The University subscribes to Edina's Digimap resources so:
Access this via our Databases.
There are licences for each collection which you can access via the website Digimap's Licence Agreements here.
For more details about the reproduction of Ordinance Survey maps see the OS website or contact copyright@exeter.ac.uk .
It is possible to include a TV programme, film or documentary as a resource in your module. However, very stringent copyright around these resources is imposed by the ERA (Educational Recording Agency) and other bodies.
NOTE: We subscribe to collections of film clips which are available under licence for re-use, e.g. Film and Sound Online. To browse these resources, select ‘Audio visual resources’ from the ‘resource type’ drop-down menu in the Electronic Library.
Box of Broadcasts
The best service to use for programmes and films is Box of Broadcasts. This is an off-air recording and media archive service subscribed to by the University. It allows all staff and students to choose and record any broadcast programme from 60+ TV and radio channels. The recorded programmes are then kept indefinitely (no expiry) and added to a growing media archive (currently at over 1 million programmes), with all content shared by users across all subscribing institutions.
It also allows you to record and catch-up on missed programmes on and off-campus, schedule recordings in advance, edit programmes into clips, create playlists, embed clips into ELE, share what you are watching with others, and search the growing archive of material.
If you want to know more get in touch with your Subject Librarian.
YouTube
There is a wealth of material on YouTube some of which is plagiarised, some of which is copyrighted and some of which is perfectly legal to use.
YouTube does not become involved in rights ownership disputes, so it is the responsibility of the end user to determine whether it is legal to use specific content. Therefore, if you are not the owner of the film or are unable to ascertain whether its use is legal, do not use it.
YouTube have a large section on copyright if you wish to find out more: http://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/en-GB/
The ERA+ Licence
The University subscribes to an ERA+ Licence
Although copying of commercial videos remains illegal and OU programmes require separate permissions, the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) licence allows the recording and retention of off-air broadcast (TV and radio) and cable material.
Features include:
All recordings or copies made under a licence must be marked with the date and title of the recording and with a statement in clear and bold lettering that “this recording is to be used only for educational purposes”; all those amassing such material should undertake and maintain listings of TV or radio programmes which are recorded and the number of such recordings made, answering monitoring questionnaires and surveys when requested.
For more details about the licence go to the ERA Website or contact copyright@exeter.ac.uk .
Because sound recordings may comprise various elements, there are three types of copyright which may apply:
So what copying is possible for use in ELE?
You can copy all or a substantial part of a recording for the purpose of criticism or review, providing that due acknowledgement is given. So always reference your clip completely.
If you can find the clip or recording online then link out to it if at all possible to minimise any problems.
Copyright free recordings
There are several places you can go to find sound clips and recordings but a good place to start is the Library’s Databases. Select ‘Audio visual resources’ from the ‘resource type’ drop-down menu to find some useful collections or get in touch with your subject librarian for more help.
Two good services you will find on there are:
But there are many more.
Images, including photographs, illustrations or diagrams from books, journals or the web are subject to copyright in their own right. Be aware that there can very often be more than one set of rights in an image, for example, a photograph taken in 1999 of a painting by Van Gogh – the painting is clearly out of copyright but the photograph is still protected.
So before you include any images in ELE taken from the internet you must have the permission of the rights owner.
Copyright in artistic works lasts until 70 years after the death of the artist/photographer. However, there may be other legal protection preventing you from using the work e.g. a cartoon character may be registered as a trademark.
Copyright-free images
The Library has access to large online collections of images that you can use, select ‘Images’ from the ‘resource type’ drop-down menu in the Databases to browse the collections to which we subscribe. If you need help then get in touch with your subject librarian.
Many of the websites listed below provide access to images with Creative Commons (CC) licences. When using CC-licensed content you must ensure that you correctly attribute this content to its creator and otherwise meet the terms of the licence under which the image is offered. You can find out more about CC licences here.
Creative Commons Image Search
This is a quick way to search a number of image databases (e.g. Flickr, Google and Wikimedia Commons). Images will have different CC licences attached. It’s possible to limit your search to CC images licensed for commercial uses, or to those that you can modify or adapt, by selecting the relevant tick box situated below the search box.
Wikimedia Commons
This site offers fully searchable access to images that have been uploaded by users, mostly for use on Wikipedia. Most of the content is available under some sort of Creative Commons licence and licensing information is clearly provided at the bottom of each image's individual page. Take care with images that are public domain in the USA, as it doesn’t automatically follow that they have the same copyright status in the UK.
Flickr CC
This section of Flickr offers images that are available under a CC licence and also explains the different types of CC licences. Use the search box in the top right of the screen and then limit your search by licence type. When your search results are displayed, select from the drop-down menu in the top left of the screen. Instead of ‘Any license’ you could select, e.g. ‘All creative commons’ or ‘Modifications allowed’.
Be wary of using the ‘No known copyright restrictions’ option, as images may be in the public domain in the USA, but not in the UK or other jurisdictions.
British Library on Flickr
The British Library’s collections on Flickr Commons offer access to millions of public domain images. Browse their themed albums for inspiration and reuse.
Google Images
Not all images on Google Images are CC-licensed, but it is possible to limit your search results to only images available under a CC licence. To do so, run your search in the standard Google Image search bar and then on the results page, click on ‘Tools’ just below the search box. A further drop-down menu will then appear with ‘Usage Rights’ as one of the options. From there select one of the options, e.g. ‘Labeled for non-commercial reuse’, to find images with CC licences.
Pixabay
High quality photos, illustrations, and vector graphics. Free for non-commercial and commercial use (although don’t use any of the sponsored images from Shutterstock). Also I would draw your attention to the following extract from the Pixabay licence:
“Please be aware that while all Content on Pixabay is free to use for commercial and non-commercial purposes, items in the Content, such as identifiable people, logos, brands, audio samples etc. may be subject to additional copyrights, property rights, privacy rights, trademarks etc. and may require the consent of a third party or the license of these rights - particularly for commercial applications.”
Unsplash
Contemporary collection of photos, all of which can be used for free, for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. As with Pixabay, while photos can be downloaded for free, photos with brands, trademarks, and people’s faces in them have the additional aspect of trademark, copyright and privacy infringement to consider and may require further permissions.
Europeana
Europeana is an online collection of content from European libraries, archives, museums and other institutions. When building your search you can filter it in various ways. From the drop-down menu which asks ‘Can I use this?’, select ‘Yes’ to find materials that are either public domain or carry a CC licence that allows for commercial use. Select ‘Yes, with conditions’ to find materials that carry a CC licence for non-commercial use.
Folger Shakespeare Library Digital Image Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library has licensed all of its images in the Digital Image Library under a CC BY-SA licence. This allows you to use their content without additional permission, provided that you follow the terms of that licence, including that you cite the Folger Shakespeare Library as the source and you license anything you create using the content under the same or equivalent licence.
Want to Know More?
The Intellectual Property Office has recently issued this useful copyright guidance: Digital images, photographs and the internet. It is aimed at people using images found online, or uploading images to the internet.
Every Internet page is full of copyright, from the content, the layout style, to the images and even the fonts.
Of course creators of internet content want you to visit their pages and they encourage traffic but the best place to link is the top level welcome page on any site if you can identify this. If you deep link, i.e. go directly to a page three or four levels down, then you can bypass the terms and conditions of the website and this is where issues can arise.
If this means complex instructions to reach an article or page you wish to highlight then you could put both the top level page and the deep link in your module. This way you have done your best to comply, given the student the direct access and you have also encouraged wider reading by highlighting the rest of the information on the site.
The best thing always to do is to link to the content you wish to be accessed not to copy and paste it into a word or .pdf document for which you may need to seek permission from the content creator.