Copyright: Academic guidance

There is no legal definition or set criteria for determining what constitutes fair dealing. It will need to be assessed and determined on a case by case basis.  Fair dealing provides an exception to copyright that allows an individual to copy a reasonable proportion of literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works. The general understanding of “fair dealing” is that copying does not infringe copyright provided:

• it is for personal use, for private study that is neither directly or indirectly for a commercial purpose;
• it is for research for non-commercial purposes;
• it is for criticism, or review and provided that sufficient acknowledgement of the original work is made;

It comprises no nore than:

• one article only from a single issue of a periodical, or one paper from a set of conference proceedings
• a maximum of one complete chapter of a book
• the whole report of one law report case
• the whole of a poem or short story not more than ten pages in length, if contained in a collection of such works in book form

OR

• no more than 5% of a work, whichever is the greater.

In other words, you can copy one complete chapter of a book even if it is more than 5% of the total length of the book and you can copy two or more chapters from a long book provided that the total copied does not exceed 5% of the total length.

Any copying beyond these limits can only be done with the permission of the rights holder or under licence.

The 'illustration for instruction' exception allows the copying of any type of copyright work for the purposes of illustration when teaching.

Due to Copyright exceptions changes in 2014, this can now be done in any medium. 

There are a number of conditions that must be adhered to if you wish to rely on copying under this exception:

• Copying is subject to 'fair dealing' – so your copying is restricted to a small proportion of a work and should be limited to what is required to illustrate a teaching point. It should not impact on the rights holder, and this might mean displaying low resolution images, or making material available for a limited amount of time
• Copying must be for a non-commercial purpose and done by the person giving or receiving instruction
• Acknowledgement of the source must be given

A quotation from a work can be used where it's considered 'fair dealing'. It should only be the amount necessary to justify the specific point for which it is being used. Sufficient acknowledgement must be given to the author of the work. 

Computer programs are protected as literary works. Information in databases is also covered by copyright. Before downloading information you should read and abide by the licence for the database you are using. Databases may also receive protection for the selection and arrangement of the data. Databases are protected against the unauthorised extraction and re-utilisation of the contents of the database. You are not allowed to use material from a database for commercial purposes.

A short extract of a work can be used to support or show criticism or form part of a review of a work; in such cases it is not necessary to obtain the copyright holders permission to use the extract. It must be 'fair dealing' and be sufficiently acknowledged. The material quoted must be accompanied by actual discussion, assessment or material to deserve the criticism and review classification.

 Although sheet music including words is excluded from the CLA licence for multiple copies of material for class, it is still covered by the 'fair dealing' provision. So students and staff can take one copy of short extracts ( no more than 5%) of a musical work for personal use, criticism and review or research but not for performance. Copying of a complete work is completely forbidden