UK Copyright Law
What is copyright?
Copyright is an intellectual property right, and copyright law is designed to legally protect writers, artists, musicians, photographers, publishers and other creators.
Copyright exists in the following:
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original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, e.g. books, articles, web pages, drawings, photographs, and computer software
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films, videos, sound recordings, TV programmes
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typographical arrangements of published editions
Copyright is an automatic right, and exists whether or not it includes the © symbol. It exists for 70 years from the death of the author.
Any copying of material carried out within the Library must conform to copyright law and/or to any of the subsequent licence agreements which the University has signed. Any breach of this constitutes a criminal offence.
When can material be legally copied?
Under the "fair dealing" exception of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, copies may be made for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study up to these limits:
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5% of a work
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one complete chapter of a book
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one article from a single issue of a journal
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one short story or poem from an anthology (maximum 10 pages)
Copying for commercial purposes is excluded from the fair-dealing exception.
For specific information regarding copyright please contact Chrisitne Smith|