Copyright legislation update

Today we feature a guest post by Andrew McVay, Governance Officer, about changes to Copyright legislation.

This post will be looking at copying permissible under S32. “Illustration for Instruction”.  This replaces the old Section 32, “Things done for the purpose of instruction or examination”.

The important changes to note are as follows:

• the new S32. covers all copyright works,
• the removal from copying in the course of instruction, of “provided the copying – (b) is not done by means of a reprographic purpose” which is a good thing, and,
• the narrowing of the provision enabling copying done for the purpose of examination, which is unfortunate.

Illustration for Instruction (S.32, CDPA as amended, SI 2014 No. 1372)

Section 32 of The Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 was recently amended through Statutory Instrument 2014 No. 1372 to permit certain amounts of copying under “fair dealing” done for non-commercial, educational purposes, including examination purposes. The recently amended Section 32: Illustration for Instruction (SI 2014 No. 1372) states as follows:

(1)        Fair dealing with a work for the sole purpose of illustration for instruction does not infringe copyright in the work provided that the dealing is—

a) for a non-commercial purpose,

b) by a person giving or receiving instruction (or preparing for giving or receiving instruction), and,

c) accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement (unless this would be impossible for reasons of practicality or otherwise).

(2)        For the purposes of subsection (1), “giving or receiving instruction” includes setting examination questions, communicating the questions to pupils and answering the questions.

(3)        To the extent that a term of a contract purports to prevent or restrict the doing of any act which, by virtue of this section, would not infringe copyright, that term is unenforceable.”.

Under this exception you may therefore show or play a work provided the copying is:

• solely for the purposes of illustration for instruction (to illustrate and reinforce a teaching point);
• not copied simply for aesthetic effect (to make the presentation look more attractive);
• the work is sufficiently acknowledged; and
• the amount of material included for the purposes of illustration for instruction is:
  • reasonable, proportionate and appropriate to the context, and
  • will not negatively impact on sales of the original material.

For copying that may fall outside fair dealing, Cardiff University has a number of copyright licensing arrangements that permit copying from books, journals, periodicals, newspapers and off-air broadcasts. For further information on these licenses, visit: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/copyright/licences.html

Please find below some links to further guidance

The Intellectual Property Office – General Copyright Guidance: https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/copyright
Educational Recording Agency Licence: http://www.era.org.uk/
ERA & Box of Broadcasts (BoB): http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/eresources/databases/bob.html
The Copyright Licensing Agency: Protecting Creativity: http://he.cla.co.uk/y
Jisc Legal: Copyright Training for Lecturers: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/Training/OnlineCopyrightCourse.aspx
Jisc Legal: Questions and Answers – Copyright Changes 2014: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ManageContent/ViewDetail/ID/3596/Questions-and-Answers–Copyright-Changes-2014.aspx