Policy Documents
| Copyright |
Who do I contact if I am unsure whether I'm infringing copyright - or not?
Which material may be photocopied without prior permission or charge?
What is copyright?
Copyright gives legal protection to the creators of certain kinds of material so that they can control the way their work may be exploited. There is no official register for copyright and, as such, there is no official action to take, for example, applying for copyright status or registration.
The type of works that copyright protects are:
original literary works, e.g. novels, instruction manuals, computer programs, lyrics for songs, articles in newspapers, some types of databases, but not names or titles;
original dramatic works, including works of dance or mime;
original musical works;
original artistic works, e.g. paintings, engravings, photographs, sculptures, collages, works of architecture, technical drawings, diagrams, maps, logos;
published editions of works, i.e. the typographical arrangement of a publication;
sound recordings, which may be recordings on any medium, e.g. tape or compact disc, and may be recordings of other copyright works, e.g. musical or literary;
films, including videos; and
broadcasts and cable programmes.
These works are protected by copyright, regardless of the medium in which they exist and this includes the Internet. However copyright does not protect ideas. It protects the way the idea is expressed in a piece of work, but it does not protect the idea itself.
Duration of copyright
In general a work is in copyright for 70 years after the death of the author; or 70 years from when the work was first made available to the public.
However, every published work has two copyrights: one in the actual content of the text (the author's creative work, where copyrights exists for 70 years after the author's death) and the other in the printed layout of the page (the publisher's typography, where copyright exists for 25 years). Special rules apply to Crown and Parliamentary materials.
Libraries and copying - to copy, or not to copy?
Are there exceptions to the exclusive rights of authors?
In the UK, a general right to copy called fair dealing covers the main exceptions. This only applies if the information required is for specific purposes such as research and private study, criticism or review or news reporting (although not photographs).
What can I copy within the limits of fair dealing?
Libraries can only supply ONE copy of the material required, providing the information provided is for the purposes mentioned previously. The requester should sign a form confirming the purpose of the request and that a copy has not previously been supplied by the library.
Copying should adhere to the following limits:
One chapter or 5% of extracts from a published work
No more than one article per periodical issue may be copied.
Illustrations can only be copied where they form part of an extract or periodical article. They may not be copied on their own.
Digitised works can only be for your own personal use and must not be stored, circulated to other people, or published on a network. The integrity of an author's work must not be infringed.
Permissions granted by the copyright holders, usually the author and/or publisher. Some agreed permissions are:
10% from a British Standard
4 copies of an A4 size extract from and Ordnance Survey map
Who do I contact if I am unsure whether I'm infringing copyright - or not?
If in doubt, You should err on the side of caution and contact the author, usually via the publisher, for permission to copy.
For general copyright queries, try the British Library Copyright Office
Do these limits apply to Crown and Parliamentary copyright?
Unrestricted copying and reproduction of certain categories of Crown copyright material was announced in the White Paper The Future Management of Crown Copyright. The categories on which guidance has been issued to date cover unpublished public records, court forms, legislation, National Curriculum, literacy and numeracy materials and Government press notices. Copyright is waived in this material to encourage its widespread use for reference and onward dissemination to all with interests in these areas.
Which material may be photocopied without prior permission or charge?
(a) Lords and Commons Official Reports (Hansard) and House Business Papers, including Journals of both Houses, Lords Minutes, the Vote Bundle, Commons Order-Books, the Commons Public Bill Lists and Statutory Instruments Lists, the Weekly Information Bulletin and the Sessional Information Digest;
(b) Other Parliamentary papers, including Command Papers and Reports of Select Committees of both Houses;
In recognition of the importance of this material, photocopying is allowed within the guidelines given below, without formal permission or charge. Users are permitted to:
(a) copy the text from any single title or document in its entirety provided that:
no more than one photocopy is made for any one individual;
copies are not distributed to other individuals or organisations;
An exception is schools and places of higher education who are allowed to provide a single copy to each student;
(b) make unlimited multiple photocopies of extracts from any title or document provided that the extracts from any single work should not exceed 30%, or one complete chapter or equivalent, whichever is the greater.
Fair dealing applying to other parliamentary copyright material
For further Parliamentary texts apart from those specified above. HMSO's Licensing Division follows the recommendations of the Society of Authors, the Writers Guild and the Publishers Association, which state that "for the purpose of fair dealing for research and private study only" (to quote Section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) the user shall be permitted to make one copy of a single chapter or of 5% of an entire work, whichever is the greater.
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