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Copyright and Digital Images

Last updated: 16 October 2006
Published in: Managing a project | Digitising analogue media | Finding and using digital media
Tags: business & community engagement | copyright | cla | digital collections

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Summary

Copyright and related rights issues are central to the use of digital images within Higher and Further education. This advice paper provides a broad overview of copyright and related rights as they affect digital images.

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Copyright and digital images - an overview
  3. What is copyright and what is its relevance to digital images?
  4. Copyright and its nature as a property right
  5. Copyright legislation
  6. What does copyright protect?
  7. Duration of copyright
  8. Moral Rights
  9. Photographs
  10. Defining ownership of copyright
  11. Infringing copyright
  12. Fair Dealing and other permitted acts
  13. Copyright protection of databases
  14. Recent developments relating to digital images

1. Introduction

Copyright and related rights issues are central to the use of digital images within Higher and Further education and will cut across an extensive range of administration, research, learning and teaching activities. This will include the creation, delivery, use and management of digital image collections. It is essential that users of digital images are aware of their responsibilities regarding the legitimate use of these images for all their activities. It is also important that creators of digital images understand how they can exploit their digital images, whilst also creating an environment which provides them with the ability to control how their images might be used.

In order to address these issues, JISC Digital Media has devised this advice paper to provide a broad overview of copyright and related rights as they affect digital images. JISC Digital Media has also developed further resources and training primarily aimed at staff working within HE and FE, whilst also of potential benefit for other professionals as well. Additional information about these can be found at:

Please Note: The information contained within these resources does not constitute legal advice. It contains interpretations of Copyright Law by JISC Digital Media and the author. No responsibility will be taken for the interpretation of this information by a third party. For specific advice on copyright, it is recommended that you consult a specialist copyright lawyer.

2. Copyright and digital images - an overview

The ease with which digital material can be reproduced, disseminated, manipulated, interacted with, stored and compressed at virtually no cost challenge the very concepts at the heart of copyright. This results in a digital landscape where content is very easy to find, but any use of it is restricted within the context of the copyright legislation. Although the copyright legislation is extremely thorough and comprehensive, there are a number of reasons why copyright, as applied to digital images, is neither black nor white and is, more often than not, various shades of grey:

  • Strictly speaking there is no such thing as electronic or digital copyright - it is a convenient term that people use to imply machine-readable form. It is not a legal or copyright term. However, copyright will still protect digital images by applying the same criteria in which copyright is applied to in the analogue world, although it can often be less straightforward to apply the concepts at the heart of copyright to certain types of digital content such as machine-generated materials and multimedia.
  • New technology is progressing so quickly that the legislation is not able to keep pace with the developments in this area.
  • Digital technology lends itself very easily to opportunities for sharing images and the potential to be used across different media platforms. This is very important because copyright infringement may occur when images are shared with appropriate authorisation but are subsequently copied from one format to another (which has not been authorised)
  • Despite the meticulousness and detail of the copyright legislation, many terms relating to the use of content, including digital images, such as: 'reasonable'; 'non-commercial'; and 'substantial' remain undefined. This creates more complexity in interpretation and the necessity for reliance upon case law, best practice and pragmatism.

Copyright is not the only rights issue that will affect digital images. Other rights issues may include: moral rights; issues of privacy and of children and adults appearing in photographs; trademarks; design rights; and obscenity and indecency. The type of issues that exist will depend upon the subject matter of the image, whether it is born digital or a digital surrogate, its context for use and sometimes the terms under which the image has been licensed. There may also be more than one type of copyright in an image and every copyright or other related rights issue may have more than one owner. Copyright issues will be the most prevalent issue in connection to digital images and can be tricky to navigate without the appropriate knowledge of the legal landscape and dedicated tools and processes to ensure that you stay on the right side of the law.

One way to understand copyright more clearly is by dealing with one rights issue at a time. By doing so, you can reduce a complex legal landscape into a series of granular issues which, one-by-one, can be effectively dealt with to ensure that images are legitimately used and licensed.

3. What is copyright and what is its relevance to digital images?

In the UK, copyright is an automatic right afforded to creators of original works giving these creators exclusive economic rights to control copying, adaptation, issuance of copies to the public, performance and broadcasting of the work that they create. In return for licensing their materials the creators are entitled to receive royalties. Copyright, together with Moral Rights (see below), patents, trademarks, database rights (see below), design rights, and performers' rights form part of the family of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), which is the name of the broad range of rights that protect the fruits of human innovation, creation and invention. Like property, IPR can be sold, bought, hired and bequeathed. The Patent Office has responsibility for managing how IPRs are administered in the UK. More detailed information about the role of the Patent Office can be found at: http://www.patent.gov.uk/

The Intellectual Property Rights family: patents, design rights, performers' rights, copyright, trademarks, database rights

In the UK, copyright protection is only afforded to certain classes of work: these must exist in material form as ideas are not given protection. This means, for example, that while an illustrator may have an idea for a drawing, it is only once it is given a tangible expression (i.e. it is drawn) that it will be protected by copyright. The other conditions that need to be met for protection under UK copyright law include that:

  • The work must be original, which means that it must not have been copied from something that already exists. This is complex and not necessarily straightforward with regards to digital images. Whilst a slavish scan of a photograph with little human intervention is unlikely to be classed as original and so not afforded copyright protection, an image that is scanned, altered and enhanced using a high level of human skill and judgement in order to achieve the effect of the original work may in itself be afforded copyright protection
  • The author must be a qualified person - a British subject or someone who normally lives or is domiciled here, or the material must first be published in this country (but note that protection is extended to work created in other countries or by other nationalities under International Copyright law, see below).

Because copyright protection in many cases is automatic and does not need registration, much digital content found on the Internet will be protected by copyright. In most cases, the copyright holder will need to be approached prior to any use of the images that fall beyond the limited exceptions permitted by law (for further information see Fair Dealing below). This also means that although a copyright credit line is not necessary for a work to be afforded copyright protection, if a credit line is used, its use can provide proof that the work is protected by copyright particularly in the context of international publishing activities that the Web provides. If used, the copyright credit line should take the following form: ("Year, name of rights holder, All Rights Reserved").

4. Copyright and its nature as a property right

As copyright is a property right, this means that like property, it can be sold, bought, given away or bequeathed in a will and so ownership can theoretically change hands many times. It is important to remember this when trying to trace copyright owners for work that you wish to use and to bear in mind that the present owner of any object like a painting or photograph may not be the copyright owner, as they did not create the object and because the object and copyright can be given/sold/bequeathed separately.

5. Copyright legislation

Copyright law in the UK is based upon a number of pieces of legislation, case law, directives, treaties and conventions, as well as interpretation. For further details on existing copyright laws visit the Copyright Licensing Agency or the UK's Patent Office.

The Copyright Designs and Patent Act 1988 (CDPA) was the first revision of the Copyright Laws in the UK for 32 years and came into effect in August 1989. A subsequent amendment to the CDPA 1988 came into effect on 1st January 1996. This extended the duration of copyright (for some works) from 50 to 70 years from the 31st December of the year that the author died. As a result, some materials that had come out of copyright suddenly gained copyright again.

Recent legislation includes the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003, which embodied the InfoSoc Directive and the Visually Impaired Persons Act 2002. There are also a number of Directives which are regularly being discussed at a European level and which have the potential to impact upon UK legislation. JISC Digital Media will update this documentation as significant changes occur.

International copyright

The Berne Convention is the most important agreement covering International Copyright. It means that reciprocal treatment is given to a copyrighted work in virtually every country and the legislation of the country where any alleged infringement took place will take precedence. This is particularly important with regards to the infringements taking place on the Internet where a user may be located in one country, a server hosting the content in another country and the content created originally in a third country. However, with material that has been placed on the Internet, there is the problem of copyright 'havens' allowing infringement to take place, i.e. where the law in a particular country has a slack attitude. It also poses problems when trying to audit an infringement through a computer trail. It can be very difficult to tract down exactly where the infringement took place or where the instructions came from. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is trying to address the different laws in different countries.

6. What does copyright protect?

Although the copyright legislation does not define digital material, such as 'Multimedia' or 'Web sites', as separate categories, these media platforms are likely to comprise of one or more elements which will be protected by copyright. These will include digital images, digital sound recordings, films and digital broadcasts and e-books, which can be classified in accordance with the existing definitions of works that are protected by copyright.

Works protected by copyright: literary works, artistic works, musical works, films, sound recordings, dramatic works, broadcasts, typographic works

Literary works covers all written works that are in machine-readable form such as journals, books, papers, proceedings, computer programs and software. There is no implication of literary merit, but the work must be of a minimum length. This means that whist single words or a single sentence are not protected by copyright (for advertising - words, logos and sentences are 'trademarked'), hyperlinks and titles of Web pages may be protected by copyright. Facts will not be protected by copyright, although collections of facts may acquire protection under the Database Rights (see below).

Depending on the levels of investment in terms of arrangement of data, databases may also be protected by copyright (see below within Database Rights).

Artistic works include graphic works e.g. paintings, drawings, models of buildings, diagrams, maps, OHP transparencies, PowerPoint presentations, engravings, autographs, photographs, sculpture, collage, digital images and computer animation. As for literary works, there is no implication of artistic merit. It is important to highlight why this class of works is important in the digital age and within the context of the copyright legislation itself. This class of materials, which is predominantly composed of image forms, is more likely to be digitised for display on a computer monitor. These materials can play an important part in teaching and learning. By their nature, when digitised (without any digital protection) it is sometimes difficult to identify their source because associated metadata and information identifying provenance can get lost. This is a particular problem if the digital images are digital surrogates of the originals, which can create 'orphan' works and increase the risk of infringing copyright.

Broadcasts are defined as an electronic transmission of images, sound recordings or other information which:

  • Are transmitted for simultaneous reception by members of the public
  • Are transmitted for presentation to the public
  • Are transmitted at a time determined solely by the person making the transmission to members of the public

However, an Internet transmission (such as a Web cast) is excluded from the definition of a broadcast unless it is a:

  • Transmission simultaneously by Internet and other means
  • Concurrent transmission of a live event
  • Programme transmitted at a fixed time determined by the person making the transmission

This means that if something is transmitted by both broadcast and Internet, then broadcasting takes precedence and the Internet element is not treated separately. This does not mean that Web sites and the transmission of them are not protected by copyright. The content of a Web site is protected just like anything else. So the words will be protected as a literary work, digital images will be protected as Artistic works, sound elements as Sound Recordings and any moving images are protected as film and so on.

Films will include film clips and film stills. Within a digital environment, it is important to remember that this category also includes moving images recorded in electronic form (as opposed to still images recorded in electronic form - which are classed as 'Artistic Works'). Moving image components of Multimedia works on CD and computer games, are likely to be classed as 'Films'.

Typographic works will cover the composition of posters, the typefaces and layout of digital and analogue publications (like books, Web sites, ebooks and journals).

Sound recordings/Music works can be included within digital content, whether they are digital versions of analogue recordings, or else recordings made specifically for a digital environment. They are protected regardless of the medium or the method used to make or play the recording.

Dramatic works will incorporate scripts and adaptations of books. There is no reason why these will not be in digital form.

By understanding which category material falls within:

  • It becomes easier to determine whether material is protected by copyright or not (please note that if materials do not fall within one of the eight categories, they are unlikely to be protected by copyright but may be protected by another type of right)
  • The duration of copyright in any work can be calculated
  • Specific conditions relating to ownership of rights can be understood (see below)
  • It is easier to see that material can belong in more than one category and thus which layers of copyright will need to be cleared
  • It can determine what works can be copied to users under Library Privilege. More information about this and related issues can be found on the British Library Web site: http://www.bl.uk/services/document/dsc.html

7. Duration of copyright

Under the present legislation, each classification for copyright has a fixed term for which copyright will last. For literary and artistic works, if the creator is known, the general rule is that copyright lasts for 70 years from the end of the year that the creator died. If the creator is anonymous then the rule of 70 years applies from the end of the year it was published (described in law as 'issuing copies to the public'). There are, of course, exceptions such as: Crown Copyright (please see Table 2 below); computer generated work (calculated from the date that the work is created); and published special editions. Unpublished literary works, in many instances, will remain in copyright until 31st December 2039 regardless of when they were created. This is an important consideration when planning to digitise and make available to the public large collections of works of this type. In these cases, ideally rights should be cleared or, at the very least, where rights are not cleared an assessment of the likely risks should take place and responsibilities should be defined.

In terms of photographs, any photograph made in the UK or by a UK citizen since August 1989 will be in copyright for the life of the photographer plus 70 years. The situation for photographs taken before this date is more complicated, since it is governed by earlier (and later) legislation with quite complex provisions. Copyright law, for example, has sometimes made a distinction between published and unpublished photographs as well as using different criteria to determine the identity of the photograph's author - sometimes this was the photographer, at other times it was the commissioner of the photograph or even the person who owned the film on which the photograph was taken! For anonymous works, copyright duration lasts for 70 years from the end of the year of publication. Table 1 provides a useful tool for calculating the extent of copyright protection in photographs, other classes of artistic works, literary, dramatic and musical works.

Table 1 - Duration of copyright (excluding Crown copyright): literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works (please click image for full version)
Duration of copyright (excluding Crown copyright): literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works (click for larger version)
Used with permission from Copyright for Archivists and Users of Archives by Tim Padfield. Second Edition. 2004.

Works that are created by servants of the Crown or Government departments and agencies, and works that have been commissioned by the Crown (such as war painting and war poetry) will be classed as Crown Copyright. Whilst these works fall within one of the eight categories of works protected by copyright (above), the duration of copyright in Crown Copyright material will differ from that of other material and will be based upon when the work was created and/or published. Table 2, below, provides an overview of the protection afforded to Crown Copyright material.

Table 2 - Duration of Crown copyright (please click image for full version)
Duration of copyright (excluding Crown copyright): literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works (click for larger version)
Used with permission from Copyright for Archivists and Users of Archives by Tim Padfield. Second Edition. 2004.

Across most jurisdictions, the duration of copyright is constantly under review in order to ensure that the interests of rights holders, their next of kin and the rights of users are balanced and fair. Currently, the UK is considering an extension of the duration of copyright protection to Sound Recordings and Performers Rights. JISC Digital Media will update this document as significant developments occur.

8. Moral Rights

As well as the economic benefits of copyright afforded to a creator of a work, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 introduced the concept of 'Moral Rights' which are distinct and separate from property rights. They provide the creator with the ability to protect the artistic integrity of their work. Moral Rights can be summarised as follows:

  1. The right of the author of a work to be acknowledged as the author or creator
  2. The right of the author to object to false attribution
  3. The right not to have his or her work subjected to 'derogatory' treatment

In addition to the above moral rights, there is an additional right afforded to the subjects' of photographs and films taken for domestic and private purposes. This restricts the subsequent use of them beyond the purposes for which they were originally taken, without the subjects' consent.

Within a digital environment, Moral Rights are important to adhere to because of the ease with which content can be altered, changed and manipulated. If digital images are reproduced electronically, it is important to ensure that they are reproduced in their entirety unless permission has been secured from the rights holder. Similarly, creators of content should be credited appropriately and measures undertaken to ensure that provenance information about digital surrogates is not lost in the process of digitisation.

Whilst copyright is a property right which can be transferred through being sold, being assigned or through legacy, Moral Rights cannot be transferred: but they can be waived. Moral Rights do not arise in work produced by staff during the course of their employment.

9. Photographs

If a photograph is of an artistic or literary work, then there may be two copyrights: one copyright in the original object and one in the photograph.

If the original item was in copyright at the time the photograph was taken, then the photograph is an infringement of copyright if permission was not granted. This may mean that you can own the copyright in the photograph but you can't do anything with the photograph because you are infringing the copyright of the original object. If you want to take a photograph of an object in copyright, then you should apply for permission, stating with absolute clarity what you want to do with the photograph. This means that if the copyright owner grants permission they will be giving 'informed consent'. If you leave the details ambiguous and you exploit the photograph, then the copyright owner can sue you. Thus it is in your interests to fully inform the copyright owner of all details.

If you are unclear of the authorship or copyright status of photographs in your collection, JISC Digital Media recommends seeking specialised legal advice.

10. Defining ownership of copyright

Copyright in material created by academic staff

Defining ownership of copyright can prove to be problematic. In general, the creator is the first owner of copyright except when the person is employed and their employer is responsible for the payment of their tax and National Insurance. In this case, this relationship, such as those existing between and academic or a researcher and his/her university, will fall under the 'employee relationship' and the employer will own the copyright that is created during the term of employment. Also as an employee, the academic or researcher won't have any moral rights in what they produce. For example, in accordance with some institutional copyright policies, a lecturer may create a series of lecture plans during the course of his employment at a college. Whilst the lecturer is the creator of the lecture plans and can use them to fulfil his or her teaching obligations at that college, if the lecturer were to leave and take the lecture plans with them, this would technically be a breach of the college's copyright, although many organisations may not pursue this.

Many educational establishments are currently re-examining their policies regarding the ownership of rights in material produced by staff and ensuring that these are clarified and further enforced through contracts of employment. JISC Digital Media recommends that you contact your personnel department if in doubt about the re-use of material, in another context, that you have created as part of your employment.

Copyright in material created by freelancers

Copyright ownership can also be unclear when freelancers are paid to create a work. As they are not an 'employee', they will usually own the copyright. For example, if a university paid a freelance photographer £5,000 to take 100 photographs, the photographer would automatically own the copyright in the photographs and the university would not be able to reproduce them, even through it had paid the photographer money to take them. In this case, the university would need to acquire a letter from the photographer assigning the copyright to them, or at the very least, negotiate a licence for specific activities. Similar cases would arise for the contracting of any other type of work, such as the development of a Web site, the creation of teaching material and so forth. It is always in your interests to double check any contract with a freelance photographer and to make sure that you are ideally acquiring the rights to the photographs as part of the commissioning contract, or at the very least, secure the rights through a suitable licence so that you can reproduce the content as you require.

11. Infringing copyright

An infringement of copyright occurs when a person carries out an activity that is restricted by the copyright legislation without authorisation from the copyright owner. These restricted acts include:

  • Copying material
  • Issuing or making available copies to the public
  • Showing, playing or broadcasting or filming
  • Adapting or amending material

Only the copyright owner is legally allowed to perform the above or give permission for someone else to perform a restricted act. Thus, if you wish to do any of the above then you must gain permission from the copyright owner. This ensures protection of the copyright owner's commercial interests.

There are two types of infringement:

  1. Primary infringement - which refers to the infringing activity itself
  2. Secondary infringement - which is providing the means for others to infringe copyright. This can include the creation of a Web site which facilitates peer to peer sharing of digital material, or permitting students to scan and disseminate digital material without due consideration of any copyright issues.

Infringement of copyright is both a civil and a criminal offence and educational institutions need to be aware of the implications and possible repercussions of unauthorised activities. These range from legal proceedings and damages destruction of infringing copies, to loss of trust and erosion of relationships with rights holders. For example, if an academic chooses to disregard a publisher's licensing agreement and create copies of articles and use them in contexts which are prohibited by the licence, the publisher may not decide to start legal proceedings, but instead, remove the article and other titles completely from circulation and use in the organisation in which the academic is based. This can be extremely damaging and can lead to a situation where other publishers may be loath to enter into any kind of relationship with this particular institution. Digital images can be easily created and widely disseminated and so it is very important that they are done so legitimately to avoid an infringement of copyright.

There are a number of defences against infringement of copyright, the most important of which are detailed below.

12. Fair Dealing and other permitted acts

Fair Dealing relates to copying for specific purposes which is fair to the rights holder and not detrimental to their ability to exclusively exploit the copyright in their works for economic benefits. These limited acts of copying are also referred to as 'exceptions' or 'permitted acts'; and those which are of relevance to legitimate copying by educational establishments are summarised below:

Fair Dealing for non-commercial research or private study. This would relate to any kind of research as long as the purposes of the research are of a non-commercial nature. For example, downloading images from the Internet and storing them on CD-ROM for personal use is most likely to be covered by this exception - whilst an example of non fair dealing would be copying an article, putting it onto a floppy disk and then putting it onto a Web site. The limitation to non-commercial research or private study is a relatively new change to the legislation and can sometimes be difficult to determine, particularly as some activities may indirectly result in commercial benefit. The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and the British Library commissioned a short study into what may be construed as commercial research which is available at: http://www.cla.co.uk/

Fair Dealing for criticism or review.For example, a newspaper is carrying out a review of Web site homepages and, as part of its review, reproduced in its article, a screen shot from each homepage it has reviewed.

Fair Dealing for reporting current events. For example, this might include the use of a digital image within a news site which is reporting an event which took place within the last 24 hours. This exception excludes the use of photographs.

Copying for the purposes of instruction. For example, an academic can hand write on the board any amount of literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works for instruction of a course.

Copying for the purposes of examination in an authorised educational establishment. For example, a lecturer is able to download and distribute to his/her class multiple copies of digital works from the Internet for the purposes of examination.

JISC Digital Media recommends that you contact your organisation's legal compliance office for more information about the specific issues relating to these particular provisions. They may also be supplemented by terms negotiated directly with publishers and other rights holders or within the provisions of any licensing schemes in operation in your organisation.

There are specific provisions called 'Library Privileges' which permit librarians and archivists the right to make specific copies on behalf of readers as long as the copying is carried out for the purposes of non-commercial research and private study, and excludes the copying of artistic works that are not illustrations or part of journals and documents. More about Library Privileges can be found out by looking at the British Library Web site.

So what is fair? It is considered fair if it does not damage the legitimate commercial interests of the copyright owner. This can then raise the question of what is a legitimate commercial interest? For example, an image may be placed on a Web site, and a researcher may use the image for his own research. The copyright owner may then sue saying he was planning to develop a Web site a charge a fee for access to the images. The copyright owner may claim damages, and only has to prove that he was planning to commercialise the Web site. What is fair can be difficult for a user to judge, but obviously, multiple copying is worse that a single copy. Multiple copying will more likely affect a legitimate commercial interest.

Whilst fair dealing is a defence against an infringement action, the onus is on the defendant (the alleged infringer) to prove that the copying was for a permitted purpose and was fair.

13. Copyright protection of databases

Databases have the potential to be protected both by copyright and the new Database Right which was implemented in the UK under the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 and took effect on 1st January 1998. These regulations amended the CDPA 1988.

In order to qualify for copyright protection, both analogue and digital databases need to fulfil the following requirements. They need to be:

  • A collection of independent works, data or other materials including digital images
  • Arranged in a systematic or methodical way
  • Individually accessible by electronic or other means

Databases will be protected by copyright as original Literary works as long as those created on or before 27th March 1996 and which were in copyright immediately before 1st January 1998 show some kind of 'sweat of the brow'. Those that were created after 27th March 1996 need to show that there was some kind of additional investment in time or effort in the selection or arrangement of the contents of the database which would constitute the author's own intellectual creation. In this way, copyright can both protect the structure and the arrangement of the database, as well as the contents themselves as long as they fulfil the above requirements.

What is Database Right and what might be protected?

Like copyright, there is no need to formally register for Database Right and both may automatically arise when the database is created or data is presented. In order to qualify for Database Right, there needs to be a substantial investment made in obtaining, verifying or presenting existing data. Substantial can refer to both the quantity and/or the quality. For example, with regards to an online collection of digital images, each item may be protected by copyright, the database is also likely to be protected by copyright as well as Database Right in the verification and presentation of the data.

Database Right protects against the substantial extraction or reuse of data which may include the permanent or temporary transfer of content from one medium to another, maybe hyper-linking and repeated systematic extraction of content if they are prejudicial to the interests of the database creator.

Database Right lasts for fifteen years, but it can be renewed regularly to effectively last indefinitely (unlike copyright which will last for a fixed term). Renewal of the Database Right can be achieved by showing that sufficient investment (whether time and/or money) has been placed in the database such that it has been added to, some items deleted or amended in the last 15 years.

Database Right, together with copyright, technical protection measures (such as digital watermarking) and licences are likely to be powerful tools in protecting digital content. So for example, in the case of an online image database, each image will be protected by copyright. This means that staff or students who are compiling images from the database should ensure that they have the appropriate permission for use of the images, whilst students and staff using the database itself need to be aware of the rights of copyright owners as well as Database Rights owners. These may be owned by different rights holders. In addition to this, in the case that a database has been delivered online, there may be a contractual agreement between the database owner and the user setting out what use is permitted and this will generally take precedence over any exceptions in the law.

More information about Database Right and other rights can be found on the Patent Office Web site.

14. Recent developments relating to digital images

Creative Commons

Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/) provides creators of original material the ability to license their content via the Web by the use of boiler-plate licences, from which they can select under what terms they would like others to use their material. Content licensed under Creative Commons will be picked up by Internet search engines, and once found, uses a series of clearly identifiable symbols to express the types of rights which are associated with it. The advantages of these licences for FE and HE institutions lie in the ability for staff and students to easily find content that may not be restricted for repurposing and incorporation into other works. The ethos of providing open access to content, has also encouraged many organisations to consider licensing out their own content under the Creative Commons licences.

Creative Commons has also helped in the development of derivative licences which includes the Creative Archive licence initiated by the BBC and other interested parties in the UK: http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk/. The use of these licenses is more restrictive than the use of the Creative Commons licences and more information about them can be found in Roles and Responsibilities for Staff Involved in Building Digital Image Collections. Another variation includes the Science Commons licences of particular use to the scientific community: http://sciencecommons.org/.

CLA Scanning Licence

CLA (Copyright Licensing Agency) has now implemented trial licences that allow institutional members from the HE and FE communities to photocopy and scan extracts from books, journals and magazines (http://www.cla.co.uk/). For the first time institutions can scan under a licence on terms similar to those that currently apply to making photocopies. The new scanning rights will help these institutions to meet the demand for electronic based learning and teaching materials. The CLA scanning licence, however, does have limitations: it prohibits the use of scanned works on the Internet for open unrestricted access; it excludes 'born digital' materials; images cannot be disseminated beyond the student and academic body; and images must be destroyed if they are not used regularly to prevent to creation of large image banks. The CLA Scanning licences also vary slightly between the two communities.

  • FE Community
    The licence with the FE community was launched in 2003 and provides a number of scanning rights to facilitate the following activities:
    • Scan extracts from books, journals and periodicals
    • Retype extracts from Licensed Material onto a computer
    • Store copies on individual PCs or a networked server
    • Incorporate digital copies into presentation software (e.g. PowerPoint)
    • Send copies by fax
    • Emails copies to authorised users
    • Use copies on a VLE/MLE/College intranet
    • Receive digital copies supplied under other CLA licences
    Further information about the specific details and restrictions contained within the licence for FE institutions can be found at: CLA: Further Education Licences
  • HE Community
    The licence for the HE community was launched in 2005 and also provides a limited set of rights. In this case, it is a CLA requirement that each HE institution meticulously keeps a record of the works that are scanned. The activities which are permitted vary from those included in the FE licence, so JISC Digital Media recommends that you refer to the specific conditions available from the CLA Web site for more detailed information: CLA: Higher Education Licences

Last updated: 16 October 2006
Published in: Managing a project | Digitising analogue media | Finding and using digital media
Tags: business & community engagement | copyright | cla | digital collections

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