What is copyright?

Copyright is an intellectual property right and gives legal protection to the creators of certain kinds of work so that they can control the way they may be exploited ie. who is allowed to copy and share their work, and how. Copyright law in the UK is governed by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 [CDPA], as amended. Under the Act, copyright subsists in the following works:

• Literary, dramatic and musical works, including poetry, blog posts, diary entries, computer programs and databases
• Artistic works, including graphic works, sculptures, maps, photographs (irrespective of artistic quality), architecture and works of artistic craftsmanship
• Sound recordings, films, broadcasts or cable programmes
• Typographical arrangements of published editions. The copyright in a typographical arrangement usually belongs to the publisher of the edition and it arises even if the work itself is out of copyright. 
• Databases.

How long does it last?

Copyright protection is automatic from the moment of creation or production; you do not have to 'register' a work to acquire copyright protection for it. However the work must be recorded in writing or some other material form (there is no copyright in ideas), it must be original, and it must be the product of sufficient expenditure of time, talent or money to make the outcome worthy of protection: there is no copyright in the merely trivial. In the UK, copyright protection lasts: 

• Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works. For 70 years after the end of the year of the author's death. If there is no known author, copyright expires 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was made, or 70 years from when the work was first made available to the public.
• Films. For 70 years after the death of the last to die of the following: principal director, author of the screenplay, author of the dialogue or the composer of the music created for and used in the film.
• Sound recordings. For 50 years after the end of the year in which they were made or, if published in this time, 70 years after  the date of release.
• Broadcasts. For 50 years after the end of the year in which they were first broadcast.
• Typographical arrangements of published works. For 25 years after the end of the year in which the edition was first published.

The Intellectual Property Office has issued guidance on the Duration of Copyright . 

Who owns copyright? 

The CDPA 1988 Act specifies who is the first owner at the time of creation or production. Copyright can be assigned by the owner to another, for example, an author of an article in a journal can assign their copyright to the publisher of the journal.

What about my work? 

In accordance with the Patents Act 1977 and the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988, intellectual property (including copyright)  generated through the course of employment in research, teaching and other related activities, legally belongs to the employer (subject to third party rights). However

• Unless specifically agreed otherwise, the University does not claim its rights of copyright in books or articles for learned journals written by members of staff or students. In general, the University preserves the rights of staff and students to publish material arising from their research as they see fit. However, in some cases where commercial exploitation of the results is a possibility, the University may require the author(s) to withhold publication until appropriate protection can be put in place.
• The University does claim ownership in all other forms of IP, including other forms of copyright e.g. software and its documentation, distance learning material, e-learning material, web site content, recordings. 
• In relation to teaching material other than any specifically commissioned by the University, the University grants the individual who created the material a personal, royalty-free, non-transferable, right to use and copy such material for academic purposes whether or not the creator is still at or employed by the University.
• In general, students own the IP that they generate, as they are not employees, and the University does not exercise any such conditions as part of registration. Students have the option to assign their ownership rights to the University of the IP they generate whilst at the University, and are generally required to do so if they wish to receive support from the University in exploiting their IP.

Please refer to the University's Policy on Exploitation and Commercialisation of Intellectual Property for further details.

Activities covered by copyright

Copyright law protects the copyright owner against unauthorised use of their work whilst also providing the owner with the ability to control how their work is shared and reused. 

Copyright owners have the moral right to be identified as the author, (right of attribution) , the right to object to derogatory treatment of a work, (right of integrity) and the right to object to false attribution. In addition, copyright owners have exclusive economic rights to gain from the exploitation of their work; activities protected by copyright law include: 

• Issuing copies to the public ie. publishing or distributing physical copies
• Copying
• Renting or lending
• Publicly performing eg. showing, playing or performing copyright works in a public space
• Adaptation 
• Communicating to the public eg. broadcast and online communication

If you wish to do any of these activities with a copyrighted work, you must ensure that you either have a licence, you have obtained permission from the copyright holder or that a copyright exception applies. 

Copyright exceptions

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 includes 'exceptions' to copyright; these are 'permitted acts' which allow the use of copyright works, in certain contexts, without obtaining the copyright holder's permission.

Copyright exceptions relevant to learning, teaching and research include:

Fair dealing

The use of many copyright exceptions involves a test of 'fair dealing'; you need to consider whether your use of someone else's work is fair. There is no legal definition and whether your use of the work can be considered fair will depend on the context and the relevant exception to copyright. 

It is important to consider:

• Have you used someone else's work in a way that stops the owner from selling their work, or making use of it in the way they want to? In other words, does your use of the work affect the market for the original?
• Have you used more of the work than you need to for your purpose? I.e., was it necessary to use the amount that you did?

Even if your use of a copyright work can be considered fair, you will still need to credit the author and source of any work you use. 

Licensing

Before using copyrighted material created by others, you must determine the attached license. 

Digital Content

The terms of use which you accept when you access digital resources such as online library resources, social media services and websites will contain the copyright licensing terms. The conditions of licences with individual publishers will vary and in most cases, a current University of Sussex staff or student member can:

• search and retrieve items.
• print and/or download individual items for personal use for teaching, learning and research.

In most cases, licences do not permit:

• downloading of the substantial part of a database or the entire contents of a publication eg. an entire journal issue
• distributing copies to others.
• removing any proprietary marking or copyright statement from any copy made.
• using online resources for commercial purposes.

If you wish to add an online journal article to a module in Canvas or an online reading list,  you will need to link to the article, rather than uploading the file. The Library's Reading List team can advise on sharing course readings. 

Collective Licences

University of Sussex staff and students have access to various collective licences that cover entire categories of copyrighted material. For example the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) licence covers the majority of published book and journals.  Please contact library.copyright@sussex.ac.uk for further information. 

Creative Commons licences

Many authors choose to share their copyright work with an open licence, enabling other people to save and reproduce it without requesting permission, providing certain conditions are met.

Creative Commons is an internationally-recognised licensing scheme and the licences work alongside copyright law and can only be applied with the permission of the copyright holder.  The Creative Commons License Chooser will help you identify a suitable license for your work with  guidance on how to apply the CC licence to different to types of outputs eg. website, blog, image.  All Creative Commons licences require that  any future reuse of your work must give you credit in the way that you request. 

This guide has been adapted from copyright guidance created by the University of Essex Library,  and by Sheffield Hallam Library 

Except where otherwise noted, this work by the University of Sussex Library, Culture & Heritage Division is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence.