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Copyright when working online
Introduction
Prepared by the OU’s Intellectual Property (IP) Department
This section offers guidance to you when working online within any of the OU’s online environments. This may be when using a website for your course of study, or any of the OU’s collaborative or personal online tools. The website allocated to your course of study is designed to allow you (via a username and password) to access study materials, participate in online collaboration, upload content for your own study purposes and share content and discussion topics with other students following the same course of study. Your tutor and perhaps others closely involved with the course of study may also upload relevant content for you to access. However any content you upload online, and make available to others (even to other students on the same course of study) must belong wholly to you and not infringe any third party rights, including copyright.
You must not upload any content (unless very small) that does not belong to you or for which you do not have permission. For example, you may be able to use up to 400 continuous words from a large book, but you must be aware that this is a qualitative as well as a quantitative decision (i.e. if you quoted a sentence from a murder mystery which revealed the murderer, this would be considered to be a substantial part of the work). It is also important that you do check terms and conditions on websites where you have copied content; they may allow use of extracts without permission, but under certain licence terms (see Creative commons licensing section). Uploading or copying content without the copyright owners’ permission may be an infringement of copyright, which is a disciplinary offence under the OU Computing code of conduct and other OU student regulations. It may also be a civil and/or criminal offence for which you may be liable.
In order to help you work online within the OU’s regulations and within the law concerning copyright whilst studying with the OU, please read the following guidelines.
What is copyright?
Copyright comes into existence as soon as a work is ‘created’ and recorded in writing ‘or otherwise’. It does not need any registration (unlike trademarks and patents through the Patent Office) to achieve protection in law. Nor does it need the familiar copyright symbol © next to it to achieve copyright protection. Copyright owners receive their protection in law through the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 (Copyright Act). The UK is also a signatory to various conventions and treaties that extend the legal protection for authors/owners works to an international level. This legal protection means that authors/owners of copyright works are the only authority (excluding any provisions to the contrary in the Copyright Act) able to grant use of their works (or parts of their works) across any media whilst the works remain in copyright.
Copyright in a work whether literary, dramatic, musical or artistic, continues to the end of the year, 70 years from the death of author. For example, if an author of a published text book died in 1940, his/her work(s) will be out of copyright at the end of 2010. This means that after that date all work(s) created/written by that author may be used (or adapted) freely without any further clearance.
The copyright for recordings and broadcasts continues for 50 years from the end of the year in which the work was first recorded or first broadcast. Note that whilst the copyright in recordings or broadcasts may expire after 50 years this does not include the content (music, artwork etc as above) which may still be in copyright for 70 years after the author’s death.
Copyright in performances also continues for 50 years from the end of the year of the first recorded performance. Again this applies only to the performance and does not apply to ‘content’, which could be a stage play (or music performance), involving a script etc that (as above) may still be in copyright for a longer term.
What is a work?
A work may be literary, dramatic, musical or artistic. So copyright will protect, for example:
- scripts, novels, poems, essays, letters, lyrics, newspaper articles, tables (timetables etc), collections (such as compilations), databases and computer programs
- paintings, photographs and other visual images
- sculptures, models, architecture, design drawings
- plays, dance and mime
- music.
There is also copyright protection for:
- recordings
- performances
- broadcasts
- films, etc.
Use of work under copyright
If works are still in copyright, do I need to get permission for use in my OU studies (assignments, etc.)?
As a student you may use extracts from works (excluding sound recordings or films) for the purposes of your own personal (and non-commercial) research or private study (Section 29 of Copyright Act). This means you may use these for the purposes of your own study and file those extracts in your personal folder (online or elsewhere) which is not accessible by or made accessible to anyone else. You may also use those extracts for the purposes of answering your assessment questions that are going to be marked by your tutor.
How much can I use for my non-commercial private study or research?
You should use as much as you need, and no more than that. You should also credit the author and source at all times as is usual academic practice.
If you find an article (or anything else) on the web (or anywhere else), which you would like to share with your colleague students (even if for their own non-commercial and personal study), in uploading the article (if still in copyright) without permission from the rights owner and making it available to others the intention falls outside the permission contained in ‘the Act’. The intention contained in ‘the Act’ is for you to use extracts etc only for your own personal study (personal study does not extend to you copying and making content available to others).
However, you could pass on some information to your colleague students. For example you could let them know where you found an article (by providing the URL, or book details) as long as you don’t ask them to copy or pass the article to others. There is no copyright in passing on information.
Linking to external websites
Please ensure any linking to external websites is appropriate to your course of study at the OU, and acknowledge and reference appropriately.
User-generated content
It is important to recognise that copyright in user-generated content will always belong to the author - which could be you. User-generated content is content created using the user’s own creative effort e.g. uploading his/her photographs, expressing thoughts in a blog, contributions and discussions within a forum, comments within a glossary and other instances where the user is not merely copying material or content from another author’s/owner’s work (remember this could potentially be an infringement of copyright).
The OU may like to reproduce user-generated content that has been submitted. By submitting or creating any online content (your own user-generated content) it is important to understand that this material may be reused by the OU for further educational purposes. You should not submit any material that you are not happy to be reused by the OU. As well as ensuring you understand the copyright situation surrounding your own user-generated content you should take great care not to publish any material that is obscene, libellous, defamatory or breaks the OU’s code of practice concerning harassment.
The above advice is reinforced in the policy documents governing student conduct (‘Terms and Conditions Governing Use of Software, Tools and Content’ and ‘Student Computing Code of Conduct’), and applies to all students registered with the OU. These documents can all be found on the student policy document website.
Creative Commons licensing
What is Creative Commons licensing and how does it work?
Creative Commons is a non-profit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.
So, if you want to share your own work with other students, or anyone else, the Creative Commons website enables you to choose a licence (which is explained in easy to understand language and symbols) appropriate to how you want to make it available (and attach to your work). Choosing a Creative Commons licence only means you have chosen to make your work available in a particular (non-exclusive) way and does not assign copyright to any user (who must abide by the terms and conditions of the licence you have chosen). Similarly if you come across any works on the internet with a Creative Commons licence attached, you will be able to share this work with others in accordance with the licence and conditions attached.
However, a word of caution, occasionally, you may find works with a Creative Commons licence attached (in copyright artwork for example) which right to licence would not wholly rest with the photographer (who may have taken the picture of the image). So keep a watchful eye, and if something strikes you as not quite right, then it is probably best not to share and keep it for your personal module use only.
The Creative Commons website provides free licences and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry; so others can share, remix, use non-commercially, commercially, or any combination thereof (adapted from: http://creativecommons.org/ about/)
Licence symbols and conditions
Creative Commons licensing terms are constructed so that they are easily understood and users do not get hampered by long drawn out ‘legal’ language which leaves people baffled and scared to interpret.
So, for example if you decide to make your work available on the basis that it may be used for non-commercial purposes, and may not be adapted, then you would choose http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nd/ 3.0/ and attach this URL to your work online. Ensure you name is on your work as the author and you have the © symbol beside your name also.
If you have a particular acknowledgement you would like people to see, when they use your work under the Creative Commons licence, then you will also need to place that on your work (e g title of your work (2010) by John Brown, © John Brown, made available under Creative Commons Licence http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nd/ 3.0/ . This makes it easier for others to credit appropriately and also links directly to the licence terms.
If you use works under Creative Commons licensing terms, please ensure you credit appropriately. All uses of Creative Commons licensed works require attribution.
For further information on licensing terms and choosing a Creative Commons licence see http://creativecommons.org/ choose/
Third-party website disclaimer
The third-party websites linked to from any OU online environment are not under the control of the OU, and the OU does not assume any responsibility or liability for any communication or materials available at such linked sites. The OU provides these references to other sites for ease of access only and in so doing is not endorsing any linked entities, nor authorising any act which may be in breach of copyright or any other third-party rights that are protected in law by international treaties worldwide.