Copyright: A practical guide for External Lecturers
This short guide will help you to identify whether you can use material in your teaching
Please note that this guide does not constitute legal advice. For further information please refer to the University’s webpages on copyright (opens in new window). The Unversity of Leeds has created an interactive online guide designed to help you stay within the law when creating teaching materials. Visit the Copyright Explainer (opens in new window).
Teaching content
Teaching Content
A lecturer can reproduce an extract from a copyright work for the purposes of "giving or receiving instruction", with full attribution. You can use material under "fair dealing" as long as you do not infringe upon the interests of the creator or copyright owner. You should consider the following:
• Financial benefit: Are you depriving them of revenue?
• Acquisition: Have you acquired the material fairly and legally?
• Quantity: Have you used only what is needed?
• Acknowledgement: Have you acknowledged the author or creator?
Consider whether you can quote or embed the URL for the material concerned rather than copying it? The European Court of Justice ruled that "a link is not a copy" (2014).
• Financial benefit: Are you depriving them of revenue?
• Acquisition: Have you acquired the material fairly and legally?
• Quantity: Have you used only what is needed?
• Acknowledgement: Have you acknowledged the author or creator?
Consider whether you can quote or embed the URL for the material concerned rather than copying it? The European Court of Justice ruled that "a link is not a copy" (2014).
Images
Copyright covers images found on social networks, Google Images, image databases such as Wikimedia Commons, websites, as well as those appearing in print. Free-to-view images are not necessarily free to re-use. Even uncredited photos may be protected by copyright.
Taking a photograph of a copyrighted image does not grant you right to use it. You should use a Creative Commons image with a pre-prepared licence. You can also search image libraries by filtering search results by licence status (CC0 gives results in the public domain with no attribution required).
If you want to use an image from a journal or book, you can use this under the fair dealing copyright exception but you must always attribute the source unless the rights holder has explicitly stated this is not required.
Taking a photograph of a copyrighted image does not grant you right to use it. You should use a Creative Commons image with a pre-prepared licence. You can also search image libraries by filtering search results by licence status (CC0 gives results in the public domain with no attribution required).
If you want to use an image from a journal or book, you can use this under the fair dealing copyright exception but you must always attribute the source unless the rights holder has explicitly stated this is not required.
Reading Materials
If you want to use content you have found on the internet, you should provide links rather than embedding material in your slides.
In summary, the Univiersity’s online course readings team can scan:
• one chapter, article or 10% of the total pages (whichever is greatest) per book or journal issue
• only items owned by the University
• books or journals published in the UK or one of the 38 CLA approved international territories
• books or journals from US publishers that have opted in to the licence.
In summary, the Univiersity’s online course readings team can scan:
• one chapter, article or 10% of the total pages (whichever is greatest) per book or journal issue
• only items owned by the University
• books or journals published in the UK or one of the 38 CLA approved international territories
• books or journals from US publishers that have opted in to the licence.