# Welcome to SMIRK Unit
10 - Educational
exceptions

- Using materials for learning and teaching
- The conditions
- Other licences
- Back to main index

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SMIRK - educational exceptions to copyright law by Soetendorp, R., Meletti, B is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://copyrightuser.org/topics/education/.

# Using materials for
teaching and learning

To minimise the burden on teachers and students who want to make use of copyright materials as part of their teaching and learning experience, the law includes a number of exceptions that allow for the use of all types of copyright work for certain educational purposes.

The most important exception for education permits the use of any type of work for the purpose of teaching. This means that copyright in the work is not infringed by an individual teacher or a student as long as they are copying the work to give or receive instruction (or when preparing to give or receive instruction), and the copying is used to illustrate a point about the subject being taught. Also, the law makes clear that 'giving or receiving instruction' allows copying when setting examination questions, communicating questions to students, and answering questions.

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SMIRK - educational exceptions to copyright law by Soetendorp, R., Meletti, B is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://copyrightuser.org/topics/education/.

# The conditions

However, the exception only applies under the following conditions:

- The purpose of the use is non-commercial
- Where practical, there should be sufficient acknowledgement of authorship of the work
- The use of the material is fair

There is no legal definition of what is fair or unfair in this context. It is an issue ultimately decided by courts depending on a number of factors, such as the amount of the work taken and whether the use would commercially compete with the copyright owner’s exploitation of the material. According to the UK government 'minor uses, such as displaying a few lines of poetry on an interactive whiteboard, will be permitted, but uses which would undermine sales of teaching materials will still need a licence'. Please view the government's guide on exceptions to copyright for more information.

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SMIRK - educational exceptions to copyright law by Soetendorp, R., Meletti, B is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://copyrightuser.org/topics/education/.

# Other licences

For content not covered by copyright exceptions the University holds a number of licences:

- Photocopying and scanning of published material for distribution to students - CLA Licence
- Use of audio-visual broadcast material - ERA Plus Licence
- Photocopying and scanning of newspaper content - NLA Licence

Further information and training

For further information on copyright in higher education visit the Copyright User website. The library can also provide copyright advice, please email copyright@gcu.ac.uk

JISC legal have produced online copyright training which gives practical advice for staff in HE. You will need to register before logging in for the first time.

This is the end of our copyright section. We hope you found it helpful.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.