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Academic Support - Library and Learning Support
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Copyright: Information for Students

Contents:

Using photocopiers and scanners

When you are making copies at the University, you must comply with copyright law. The following notes offer guidance on what you may copy, but if you are unsure, you should ask the Library Copyright Adviser. For the purposes of your own private study, you may make a single copy of the following:

  • Journals & Newspapers - one article from an issue
  • Books - one chapter or up to a maximum of 5%
  • Pamphlets - up to 10%, but not exceeding 20 pages
  • Poems and short stories - when contained in an anthology up to 10 pages may be copied. Also, a poem or a short story embedded in a book may be copied as part of a chapter
  • Illustrations - may be copied provided they accompany the text of an item
  • Maps - an extract of up to A4 size from a printed format of an Ordnance Survey map or any item that accompanies the text of an item
  • Photographs - one single copy
  • Slides or transparencies - one copy to illustrate a presentation when purchase or hire are not feasible
  • Short excerpts only from musical works and no copying for performance purposes

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Exams

The education exception of the Copyright Act permits copying for the purposes of setting or sitting an examination, provided that the material copied is not subsequently published. Assessed assignments, dissertations and theses are covered by this exception and you do not have to seek permission to include third party copyright materials in your academic work, as long as it is fully referenced. The education exception does not apply to music for performance, which may not be copied.

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Television and video recordings

The University has an ERA (Educational Recording Agency) licence, which allows us to record and put in the Library any programme broadcast on terrestrial television (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, C4,), except Open University programmes.

Commercial videos may not be copied, unless the copy is made in the course of instruction in the making of films or soundtracks and is done by a person giving or receiving instruction. Commercial videos may be shown in a classroom environment, for example in presentations.

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Standards

The University subscribes to the British Standards Institute full-text database of standards, which is available over the Internet. Under the licence, you are permitted to:

  • Print one hard copy of any standard within our subscription for personal use within the University
  • Copy a maximum of 25% of a standard and paste to another document for use within the University
  • The copied content must contain "Copyright BSI @ Date (of material)"
  • Download a single electronic copy of a standard

However, you may not:

  • Copy standards or reproduce parts of standards for external use
  • Copy or circulate standards electronically (including internal e-mail)
  • Copy downloaded standards for distribution to others, including BU staff and students

For paper versions of standards, up to 10%, or no more than 20 pages, may be copied for research or private study under the fair dealing provision of the Copyright Act.

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Electronic materials

Electronic information is also protected by copyright, including web pages, e-mails, computer programs and podcasts. Although the education exception of the Copyright Act means you can copy materials in order to sit an exam or write a piece of assess work, for other purposes it is important to bear the following points in mind:

  • Just because a web page may be available free of charge does not mean that it can be freely copied
  • Forwarding or publishing material either in print or electronic format is an infringement
  • Some web sites give express permission for copying. If a site does not, permission to copy must be sought
  • It is advisable to ask permission to include a link on your site. Some institutions may object to being associated with the material on your site
  • Do not use 'deep links' - ie always link into the home page of the site so as not to bypass copyright statements, credits or advertising materials, and to ensure that the author is identified
  • Be careful when using frames - you would be infringing someone else's copyright if the link into their page is surrounded by your logos, information, etc.
  • Do not carry out unauthorised downloading of software or music, e.g. by file swapping. This is illegal and penalties can be severe

Library subscription-based databases, e-journals and e-books

The use of these electronic resources is subject o the terms and conditions of the licence agreements between Bournemouth University and service providers. For general details, refer to Licence and Copyright information. You can usually find a link to the exact terms and conditions of each database etc on its home page.

Student with Disabilities

Special provision is made for visually impaired students. For further information, refer to the Library's copyright compliance web page Information for Students with Disabilities.

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Related topics

Remember that you must acknowledge your source every time you refer to someone else's work. Failure to do so amounts to plagiarism, which is against the University rules and is a serious offence. Further information about plagiarism.

Your lecturers will expect you to set out your references following a particular format called the Harvard Referencing System. BU Guide to Citation in the Harvard style (PDF 198kb)

N.B. The Department of Law expects students to use the referencing standard OSCOLA (The Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities). A tutorial for students is available from Cardiff University - Citing the Law.

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