University of Reading cookie policy

We use cookies on reading.ac.uk to improve your experience, monitor site performance and tailor content to you.

Read our cookie policy to find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Face to Face Teaching

This includes lectures, seminars, tutorials, laboratory work, and other forms of instruction delivered in person on University premises.

The Performance Right: Drama, Music and Film

Copyright owners of literary, dramatic or musical works have the exclusive right to perform them in public. The corresponding right for owners of films, sound recordings and broadcasts is to play or show their works to the public.

Almost every situation that is not private and domestic is considered to be public. However, there is a provision in UK copyright law that allows educational establishments to perform, play and show copyright works to audiences of students and staff for the purposes of instruction.

This means that literary, dramatic and musical works can be performed live in all forms of face to face teaching without the need to ask permission of the copyright owner. It also means that sound recordings, films and broadcasts can be played and screened in lectures (for example) without seeking permission from the copyright owner first. This is despite the copyright notice or warning which may feature on the work, using phrases such as "strictly for home use" and so on. This provision in the Copyright Act overrides these types of statement.

Please note that this provision applies only to face-to-face teaching (not teaching delivered via video recordings) and the use must have an instructional purpose. If you wish to deliver teaching via an online medium such as Blackboard, please see Online delivery.

Electronic Sources

If you want to use YouTube, iPlayer, or other on demand services during your face-to-face teaching, you may. However, you may not copy from online videos to create clips and you should avoid showing clips that have not been made available with the authorisation of the rights owner.

The University subscribes to the Box of Broadcasts service, which provides access to TV and radio programmes from free-to-air channels, with an archive of over 2 million programmes, which can be shown during lectures. It is also permissible to create and embed programmes and clips in Blackboard, using the functionality provided.

Things to do now
Delivering teaching via Blackboard - see Online delivery

FAQs - Copyright