This pages relates to copyright generally. For information about open access copyright, take a look at the Open access and UBIR section of this guide.

Copyright protects all published works both in print or electronic format and can include for example the following:

Books, newspapers, pamphlets, journals, reports, art, maps, photographs, films, music, sound recordings, logos, podcasts, computer programs, databases, websites and all other publicly available content.

The author of a work is the first owner of copyright in that work. If an employee creates a literary, dramatic, musical, film or artistic work, the employer is the first owner of copyright. A student has ownership of any work that they create in university.

Different terms apply to different media. For literary and artistic works, dramatic and musical works, and films and sound recordings copyright lasts until 70 years after the death of the author or if more than one, the last surviving author. For typographic material, it is 25 years from the publication of a particular edition. Crown Copyright lasts for 125 years.

Copyright is a legal property right which encompasses a set of exclusive rights to control the reproduction of intellectual, creative and artistic material expressed in a physical form. UK Legislation which covers copyright is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988). There is no requirement or procedure to register copyright protection, it is automatic and applies to all physical formats, including the Internet. Copyright may be sold, transferred or licenced.

Of most relevance to academic libraries, UK Copyright law limits the amount of material that can be legally copied or distributed to others. To fulfill copyright obligations regarding the photocopying and scanning of materials, the University Library holds a licence with the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and also the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) which covers recordings.

The CLA Licence allows University of Bolton staff and students to make single or multiple photocopies of limited extracts from copyright protected printed books, journals and magazines for distribution amongst staff and students, including distance students, for non-commercial and educational purposes. It also allows for such materials to be scanned for the purpose of distributing digital copies.

The ERA Licence permits any member of University staff to make recordings from the following providers: BBC television and radio, ITV network services (including ITV2 and ITV3), Channel 4, E4, More 4 and Film 4, Five Television and S4C. Viewing of such material is permitted for educational purposes both on and off-campus. Programmes from ‘on demand’ services such as BBC’s i-player, can only be recorded if the programme provider allows it.