Copyright Exceptions

Copyright law provides protections against unauthorised reuse, in the form of copyright restrictions, and limitations to such restrictions, in the form of copyright exceptions. Where applicable, copyright exceptions enable limited reuse of copyright-protected works without obtaining rights owners’ permission.

Although exceptions limit copyright owners’ exclusive rights in certain special cases, they are not exemptions from copyright law. Any reliance on a copyright exception neither exempts the work from copyright protection, nor exempts the user from responsibility to avoid infringement. Where applicable, copyright exceptions provide a defence to a claim of infringement, rather than a freedom from obligations.

Exceptions for education

Many copyright exceptions support reuse for non-commercial, educational purposes, specifically, including:

• Acts of teaching, covering preparation and delivery (in the physical or virtual classroom), subject to a test of fair dealing.
• Educational screenings, covering the playing or showing of works for instructional purposes, on campus.
• Private study, covering copying for personal scholarly reference, subject to a test of fair dealing.

Reliance on an applicable copyright exception first requires the reuse to be within scope of that exception. For example, all three exceptions identified above apply only to reuse for a non-commercial purpose, while one applies only on the premises of educational establishments.

To avoid infringing, such reuse must comply with all conditions of any applicable exception. For example, all three exceptions identified above are conditional upon sufficient acknowledgement (identifying the work and its author, unless impossible), while two are subject to a test of fair dealing with the original work.

Other copyright exceptions that may support personal educational purposes include those covering the creation of accessible copies, and of so-called “library privilege” copies.

Alongside the availability of applicable copyright exceptions, the University obtains copyright licence coverage for reuse that would not otherwise be permissible. Sometimes, applicable exceptions and licensed permissions may overlap. Usually, however, there is no need to obtain a licence authorising reuse to the extent that such reuse is already permissible under a copyright exception.

Exceptions for research

Copyright exceptions supporting reuse in a research context include fair dealing for non-commercial research (covering copying by or for the researcher, including of research stimuli) and copying for computational analysis (covering text and data mining for non-commercial research).

Additionally, other more general copyright exceptions may cover some reuse in research outputs. For example, for works previously made available to the public, the exceptions for criticism, review or quotation may cover the reuse of quotes, and some figures, in scholarly research publications, subject to a test of fair dealing.

Fair dealing

This concept isn’t defined in the legislation, depending instead on the facts – and factors such as context, purpose and extent – in each case. Fair dealing requires reuse not to be excessive, nor to conflict unreasonably with a rights owner's legitimate interests (e.g. by depriving them of income) or normal exploitation of their work (e.g. by substituting for the original source).

To benefit from a fair dealing exception, any reuse must be fair-minded and reasonable in the context and not unduly detrimental to the copyright owner. For example, it is likely to be harder to demonstrate fair dealing with a high-resolution commercial stock photograph, than with a low-resolution copy of an image for which the rights owner would not normally expect to charge reproduction fees.

Note that UK law does not provide a general “fair use” defence, so to avoid infringing, reuse must be for the particular purpose specified by the applicable exception(s) – such as 'illustration for instruction' (teaching use), or quotation – as well as being fair dealing.

Sufficient acknowledgement

Many copyright exceptions are contingent on accompanying acknowledgement of third-party copyright-protected work. Sufficient acknowledgement is defined in the legislation as 'an acknowledgement identifying the work in question by its title or other description, and identifying the author, unless—
(a) in the case of a published work, it is published anonymously;
(b) in the case of an unpublished work, it is not possible for a person to ascertain the identity of the author by reasonable inquiry' (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.178).