The twelve gifts of copyright

As 2024 comes to a close, we look back at what the copyright support service in LCCOS has brought you over the year:

One copyright literacy strategy

The draft strategy sets our vision for developing copyright literacy across UCL. We seek to develop a culture in which copyright literacy informs decisions people make around research, learning, teaching and professional activities. How will we do this? Read about our values and proposed activities and have a say in how the startegy is shaped and implemented. You can access the document on Sway and give feedback via the embedded form. Consultation ends on 13 December 2024.

Two online tutorials

• UCL Copyright Essentials introduces copyright through simple scenarios, including Star-Wars-based examples. Should we be using these images and music or are Stormtroopers about to arrest us? Complete the 30 minute tutorial in your own time.
• Our Copyright and your teaching online tutorial addresses copyright with busy lecturers in mind. It is built around artist’s Christian Marclay’s The Clock to discuss how materials can be used creatively in new contexts. You can choose which sections to complete (e.g., licences, copyright exceptions, AI) and get back to this resource at any time.

Three education licences

UCL holds three licences that support the use of books, articles, images, news articles and broadcasts in teaching and learning. These are the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) licence, the NLA licence and the ERA licence. Many more licences with publishers and suppliers allow you to access and use a very large number of e-journals, databases and other resources.

Four playful sessions

We ran four sessions where we played a version of the Copyright Dough game,  developed by Katrine Sundsbø and Hannah Pyman at the University of Essex in 2019…

 

 

 

 

and a new card game, Copyright for Humans, developed by Christine Daoutis at UCL in 2024. Both games are a fun and engaging way of learning about the nuances of copyright. If you are interested in arranging a session to play either game, please contact copyright@ucl.ac.uk.

Five golden rules!

• When using materials protected by copyright, permission is the default option…
• …but it is not always necessary. Copyright may have expired; materials may already be openly licensed allowing reuse or you may be able to rely on a copyright exception.
• Know your rights: do you own the copyright to the materials you create?
• If you own the copyright, consider licensing your work to make it open and reusable by others.
• The fifth rule is that you shouldn’t rely too much on rules. Learn more about copyright to understand how exceptions, interpretation and risk affect decisions we make around copyright.

Created using Microsoft Copilot on 2 December 2024.

 

(Guidance on:)

Six open licences (Creative Commons) 

Creative Commons licences are legal tools that allow materials that are protected by copyright to be reused under terms specified in each licence. All licences require that the author of the work be attributed. Non-commercial reuse, no adaptations and licensing under the same terms may or may not be requirements of a CC licence. You can see relevant guidance on the UCL copyright website and on the UCL Open Science blog. We also run on-demand sessions on open licensing.

Image: Creative Commons sticker logo. Source: CC website.  

 

Seven web resources

Have a look at the following pages and reading lists, which were most recently created/updated on the copyright website:

• Copyright and your research publications
• Copyright for research data and software
• Copyright and text data mining
• Copyright and your thesis
• Avoiding copyright infringement: the use of images
• Copyright for students
• Reading list: Finding and using copyright-protected materials
• Reading list: research on copyright literacy 

Eight consultations 

We can meet you online or in person to offer advice on various copyright topics. The most popular ones this year were: how to protect and mark a work as your copyright; how to license publications, websites, research data and projects; advice on ownership in collaborative projects; reviewing policies in archives; digitising and licensing out-of-copyright materials; using images from archives and museums in theses; copyright considerations in GenAI;  use of materials in open educational resources. Book an appointment or email copyright@ucl.ac.uk.

Nine training sessions 

In term 1 alone we ran 9 scheduled sessions, as part of the library skills programme, for research staff, professional services staff and postgraduate students. These are delivered over Teams or in person. Additional sessions are available on demand for students and staff in Faculties and professional services departments. Register for a session in term 2 or contact us on copyright@ucl.ac.uk to arrange a session.

Ten types of queries 

The most popular queries are about using images, using an author’s own article in a thesis, choosing a licence for a publication or thesis, licensing research data, clarifying ownership of IP, dealing with/avoiding infringement, linking or embedding materials in teaching resources, using copyright exceptions, understanding terms and conditions in social media platforms and GenAI tools, and terms of publishing agreements.

Eleven brilliant teams

More than one team in LCCOS works with and supports copyright as part of various roles. In addition to the copyright service: the teaching and learning services team managing reading lists; the library skills team, the site librarians and subject librarians; the interlibrary loans team, the open science and open access teams, the LCCOS communications team, UCL Press and the museums and archives teams offer copyright support on a daily basis.

Twelve blog posts (plus three bonus ones)

In 2024 12 posts discussing copyright were published, either on this blog or as part of the copyright series on the UCL open science blog:

• January 2024: new works in the public domain, good tidings for images, and a new year’s resolution
• A series of 6 blog posts on copyright exceptions during Fair Dealing Week 2024, starting with Keeping it Fair and Honest: How Copyright Exceptions Can Support Your Thesis, Publications, and Teaching.
• Developing a Copyright Literacy Community at UCL
• Copyright Literacy Matters: Developing a Copyright Literacy Strategy at UCL
• How can AI help you with your systematic literature review? Reflections from a two-day seminar. Guest post by Veronica Parisi.

• • How Understanding Copyright Can Help You as a Researcher
  • Copyright and Open Science in the Age of AI: What Can We All Do to Ensure Free and Open Access to Knowledge for All?
  • Copyright and AI Part 1: How Does Copyright Apply to AI-Generated Works?
  • Copyright and AI Part 2: Perceived Challenges, Suggested Approaches, and the Role of Copyright Literacy (with Alex Fenlon and Erica Levi).
  • Text and Data Mining (TDM) and Your Research: Copyright Implications and New Website Guidance.

What next?

We are not asking you to sing along to this version of the twelve days of Christmas; but we do ask you to take part in the consultation on the aims and implementation of the draft copyright literacy strategy. Does it address any gaps you have in understanding, engaging and working with copyright? Are there any topics (e.g. AI, student-created videos, images) we should focus on and any activities and resources we could include in an implementation plan? You can access the document on Sway and give feedback via the embedded form. Consultation ends on 13 December 2024.