Copyright: Information for Teachers

There are various ways you can use copyrighted material in your teaching - either directly in Lectures, or posted onto VITAL - without having to gain permission first or risk infringing copyright law.

Use of Materials in Lectures and Lecture Capture:

Built into the UK copyright law are ‘Acts Permitted in relation to Copyright Works’.

These acts are often referred to as ‘Copyright Exceptions’ i.e. exceptions to copyright law.

Copyright Exceptions and Lectures:

Copyright exceptions allow LIMITED use of copyrighted material for educational purposes in lectures WITHOUT having to gain permission and WITHOUT infringing copyright law.

Copyright Exceptions for Education:

• The material is included solely to illustrate a point;
• The material is included for the purpose of criticism or review;
• The material is being used for quotation;
• The material is included for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche;

Fair Dealing:

For ANY of the above copyright exceptions to be applied, the use of the material must ALSO come under the concept of ‘fair-dealing’ i.e.

• The amount of the material used must be reasonable and appropriate to the specific purpose - usually only part of a work may be used.

• Use of the material must not interfere with the commercial interests of the rights holder
• The material must not be used for commercial purposes;
• The material must be accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement/attribution;

Further information is given in the individual resource headings, below

Use of Materials in VITAL:

The University of Liverpool holds a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), which allows staff to scan extracts from permitted copyright works and upload them to VITAL in order to support teaching and learning.

BUT you have to comply with the terms of the licence for each item uploaded to VITAL which involves filling in a Copyright Notice Form to show the terms have been met. 

Alternatively, staff may use the Library's Digitisation Service which will automatically check materials for copyright-clearance, digitise the materials and embed the scans within Reading Lists @ LIverpool (contact your Liaison Librarian to find out how).

Further information is given in the individual resource headings, below.

If you are not able to find the information you are looking for, please feel free to contact your Liaison Librarian or the Licensing Manager with your query.