UK law permits teachers and students to makes copies of third party material for the purposes of "giving or receiving instruction".
Lectures (in person or recorded), student activities and assessments are covered by this legal exception. Course reading is treated differently in UK law.
You must have acquired the material legally (free or paid for), and your use must be fair dealing. Broadly speaking, this means all of the following criteria must be met:
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There's no legal definition of how much is 'reasonable'. Use your judgement about whether your use would impact on the rights-holder's market. For instance:
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Consider whether you can link to the material on the host platform instead of making a copy. Sharing a link is unlikely to breach copyright, providing you aren't knowingly promoting online piracy, or enabling students to get round a paywall.
Films are protected by copyright in the UK for 50 years after the last of these rights-holders dies: principal director, producer, screenplay author, composer of soundtrack. TV programmes are protected for 50 years from date of first broadcast; sound recordings for 50 years from the date of recording.
If you wish to incorporate copyright AV material which isn't already licensed for educational use into your teaching: UK law permits teachers and students to screen a film or TV broadcast "at an educational establishment", for "instruction".
Legal opinion is mixed about whether this can include using unlicensed AV material for e-learning activities. It can be argued that streaming a film via a password-protected platform to a closed group of students at a specific time meets the criteria for an "educational establishment". However, there's less confidence amongst UKHEIs that making a recording available via the VLE for students to engage with in their own time would qualify as a permitted use in UK law, and any legal exception would be unlikely to cover students based outside the UK.
If you find freely-available video content which is relevant to your teaching, but you're not sure whether it's a legitimate source, you can reduce the risk of liability for copyright infringement if you give students the link rather than making a copy of the file. But be mindful that the host platform may remove any unauthorised material without warning
Copyright Guidance for Using Films in Online Teaching During the Covid-19 Pandemic: a paper by Emily Hudson, Kings College London School of Law, exploring the legalities and potential workarounds (published 6-8-2020).
Sheet maps are not covered by the University's CLA Licence for course reading. Ordnance Survey maps are Crown Copyright, protected for 50 years from date of publication. Use Digimap if you wish to distribute OS maps to students.
UK law permits teachers and students to play recorded music "at an educational establishment", for "instruction", whether or not it is licensed for educational use. Opinion is mixed about whether this could include ripping CDs for remote learning.
If you are creating e-learning material using proprietary software (such as Camtasia), use the soundtracks provided if you wish to incorporate backing music. You could also try the Free Music Archive, a music platform used by over 34 000 artists to share tracks with an open licence for non-commercial reuse.
Musical scores are protected for 70 years after the death of the composer; later additions such as lyrics, fingering or breathing marks are also protected for 70 years after the death of the creator. The typographic setting of a score is protected for 25 years from the date of publication.
Photocopying or scanning sheet music for educational purposes isn't covered by the University's CLA Licence: refer to the MPA Guidelines for Copying Sheet Music.
The University holds the NLA Education Establishment Licence for making digital copies from UK print newspapers for teaching and media monitoring purposes. Copies can be uploaded to a VLE or distributed to students via email.
Universities own the copyright in teaching materials produced by their employees, unless they have explicitly waived this right. However, some educators choose to licence their material for wider use, free of charge. See Copyright: The Basics for an overview of open licensing schemes, including Creative Commons.
Where to find OERs (University of Hull has no formal relationship with these providers)
You may also find useful teaching material in the many e-books and e-journals which are published with Open Access.
Further support for University of Hull teaching staff:
Copyright, Fair Dealing and Online Teaching at a Time of Crisis
This blog post (18-3-2020) by UK e-learning and copyright experts Chris Morrison and Jane Secker includes free access to selected chapters from their authoritative handbook:
Copyright & E-learning: A guide for practitioners (Facet Publishing, 2018)
Exceptions to Copyright: Learning and Teaching
From the UK Intellectual Property Office, a plain English explanation of the law as it applies to schools and HEIs, following amendments to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act in 2014.
