Tag Archives: copyright

video

Showing Digital Video Recordings

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Here in the UK in order to show television recordings to your students you may need a licence, this is run by the Educational Recording Agency (ERA).

One thing I have found that a lot of people don’t realise is that the ERA licence only covers specific broadcasts from the following broadcasters.

BBC television and radio
ITV Network services (including ITV2 and ITV3)
Channel Four and E4
Five television
S4C

It does not include for example films or adverts or commercial radio.

However this is not an issue (except for labelling purposes) to quote the ERA:

However, if you record these broadcasts for non-commercial educational purposes your recordings will not infringe copyright, unless a certified Section 35 licence applies. This is because Section 35 (1) states that where works are not covered by a certified scheme, then educational establishments may reproduce and communicate them electronically on-site without infringing copyright. You will need to adequately acknowledge, i.e. label, any broadcast recordings you make under Section 35 (1).

So you can record adverts for showing for instructional purposes, or as one college I am aware of recorded The Terminator for a media lesson, without needing a licence.

Note to those who wish to hold digital recordings of tv shows, the ERA licence for ERA licenced recordings only covers the on-site computers and therefore you can not stream to students at home for example.

Digital recordings stored on-site, e.g. on an establishment’s central server, may only be accessed from on-site terminals. A suitable security or password protection system needs to be in place to ensure recorded material is not accessed by students at home or anywhere off-site, as this is not permitted under the ERA Scheme or any part of Section 35.

Usual disclaimer applies, all material in this posting is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. In all copyright matters, consult a legal expert or lawyer.

flickr

Scanning in slides and photographs

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If you are scanning in slides or taking digital images of projected slides, ensure that your institution has the rights to the images on those slides. A lot of colleges in the long and distant past would have purchased slide collections and now want to digitise them, ensure that you have the rights
to do so.

Who does own the rights to the slide, they do belong to the original photographer, but if they were an employee of the college and they took the photographs for using within a course being taught in the college then the copyright belongs to the college, unless there was an agreement to the contrary.

When producing electronic resources I commit myself to only utilise images that I have the rights to use – and in most cases these rights would have been purchased or owned by me.

As a result I will often take photographs for learning resources.

However be aware that taking photographs of students (and staff) can breach both the data protection act and the human rights act and therefore if there are people in your pictures ensure that they have signed a model release form before using them in learning resources or publicity material.

The other thing to remember is that a lot of image collections you can buy are for personal use only and can not be used in an educational context without the written permission of the copyright holder.

My line is, if in doubt don’t use it.

One way to find images you can use is via Flickr and search for those images which have a creative commons licence.

The information being provided in this posting is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as constituting legal advice.

jisc

BCE webcast from the JISC Advisory Services

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JISC Legal will be hosting a free to view webcast on 18 July 2007 on Business and Community Engagement – The Legal Issues. The aim of this webcast is to raise awareness of the legal issues involved in BCE activities (for instance, copyright) and show how JISC Legal, through its guidance publications and case studies, can assist colleges and universities with these issues. There will also be contributions from the other JISC Advisory Services (JISC infoNet , Netskills , TechDis and TASI) to show how they can use their expertise to support institutions with their BCE activities.

The webcast is directed at UK further and higher education staff working in areas related to knowledge transfer, work based learning, community links, outreach, CPD, employer engagement, wider participation, and lifelong learning.

You can find further information about the programme and how to access the webcast by visiting the webcast section of the JISC Legal website.

vle

Copyright and VLEs

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I sometimes get asked what materials can I upload to a VLE, are there any materials I can’t upload due to copyright.

Basically what I advise is do not upload any copyrighted material unless you have the rights, a licence or permission from the copyright holder to do so.

Sometimes you will need to check multiple permissions for a single resource as the text, images and diagrams may have different rights holders.

Staffordshire University have a (obviously HE centric) guide on copyright and VLEs which gives a more detailed explanation of the issue.

There is also the JISC Collections activity which I wrote for them which also covers some VLE issues amongst others.

Copyright is a complex issue and there are a lot of myths about copyright and education. If you are not sure about something, check don’t assume it will be okay.