Digitisation and the Internet
Copyright law applies to digitised material (text, images, photographs, etc) and the Internet. Materials must be reproduced with caution.
With the implementation of the European Union directive on harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society the right of 'communication to the public' (electronic transmission), including digital broadcasting and on-demand services, belongs to the copyright owner. The same recommended copying limits for fair dealing for non-commercial research and private study apply.
Some websites in the public domain, particularly government department sites, may be downloaded or printed free of charge. Such sites usually display a copyright notice or disclaimer. Other sites may similarly allow downloading.
If you want to exceed the fair dealing copying limits, or digitise material that is going to be accessible to a number of people (eg students on a particular course/module), the permission of the copyright holder must be obtained. There are licensing schemes available for copyright clearance and digitisation, bypassing the need to contact each individual copyright owner. The University of Reading has signed the CLA Photocopying and Scanning HE Licence.
Further information
If you want to reproduce materials for electronic storage consult the following sources of further information:
- Copying electronically fairly or unfairly?
Guidelines for the higher education community covering viewing, printing, storing and transmission of electronic publications. Agreed by the Publishers Association and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils of the the UK. - Copyright and intellectual property rights (JISC Briefing paper no. 19)
This paper provides a brief overview of copyright and IPR issues for those people involved with publishing learning materials through a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).