Please note that we are not qualified to provide 'legal advice' around copyright and intellectual property. The information provided here is for guidance and information purposes only.
Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people.
More information on copyright is available at the following LibGuide: https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/c.php?g=669069
Creative Commons licences ensure that the final version of a research output remains freely and permanently accessible for everyone at the point of publication, and copyright for the article will be retained by the authors.
There are six different Creative Commons licences, varying in restrictiveness, all of which allow a work to be open access.
CC BY – Creative Commons Attribution. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. It is recommended that you use this licence wherever possible.
CC BY-SA – Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.
CC BY-NC – Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
CC BY-NC-SA – Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.
CC BY-ND – Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives. This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
CC BY-NC-ND – Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives. This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
Open Government Licence (OGL): Can apply to works which are ‘crown copyright’ and produced by UK government bodies. An Open Government licence is equivalent to a CC BY licence in allowing a user to:
‘copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information’
‘adapt the Information’
‘exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application’
Above uses are permitted on the condition that due acknowledgement and attribution is provided.
CopyLeft Licensing: Most commonly applied in the field of software, Copyleft principles permit the free distribution and modification of the original work under the proviso that the same rights be applied to any derivative work created from the original. This is equivalent to the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) licence.
For copyright queries related to teaching materials, the relevant Academic Liaison Librarian for your department can provide advice.
For researchers looking to re-use copyrighted material in a publication, the Research & Scholarly Publications team can be contacted for guidance in the first instance.
What is OA?; OA Policies; APC Funding; Pure Repository; Rights Retention.
Creating and Preserving Data; Data Planning; DMPs; FAIR Data; Finding Data.
About Coventry Open Press; Contact Us; Submitting Proposals; Current Publications.
Publishing Advice; Predatory Publishers; Theses; Metrics; Persistent IDs.