UCC Library: Copyright : Copyright in Teaching

Educational establishments may make unlimited use of copyrighted materials in the course of instruction (lectures, tutorials, etc.) or in preparation for instruction without infringing copyright, as long as the copying is not reprographic. Reprographic copying for individual use is covered by Fair Dealing exemptions; while the same for groups is covered by Higher Education copyright licences, such as the ICLA licence in Ireland.

Note: If the material you are looking for already exists in a digital format, you should provide a link to this. Please consult the Library's collections before scanning or digitising any material for teaching purposes.

ICLA Higher Education Licence & what it permits

University College Cork holds a Higher Education Licence from the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency (ICLA). This licence permits members of the institution to make multiple copies of extracts from books, journals, periodicals, and newspapers under specific conditions for educational use. It supports teaching in both on-campus and distance learning settings, including the preparation of course packs and the use of Canvas.

Full licence terms, including updates, are available at www.icla.ie . Under the licence, multiple copying for educational purposes is permitted if the following conditions are met:

Copying must be for UCC’s educational purposes, including classroom teaching, Canvas, student handouts, and course packs
The material being copied must be lawfully held by UCC:
- Owned in physical format (e.g., library holdings)
- Accessed under a valid institutional subscription, or
- Otherwise legally acquired (e.g., open access or by direct permission).
Limits on copying:
- One complete chapter or 10% of a book, whichever is greater.
- One article from any issue of a journal or periodical.
- One short story or poem (up to 10 pages) from an anthology.
- One article or extract from a newspaper (now covered under the ICLA licence).
Number of copies:
- One copy per student in the class, plus two copies for the teacher.
- Copies may be distributed in print or digital format, including upload to secure course platforms (e.g. Canvas).
Acknowledgement is required: Each copy must include a full bibliographic citation and a copyright notice.

What ICLA licence does not permit

The licence does not permit:

Copying from works listed in the ICLA’s Excluded Works Register
Reproduction of maps, charts, printed music, artistic works, or books of tables and statistics.
Use of infringing copies or content obtained from unauthorized sources.

If you wish to reproduce material not covered by the ICLA licence, you must obtain direct permission from the copyright holder or a relevant rights body, such as:

Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) – for music.
Irish Visual Rights Organisation (IVARO) – for artistic and visual works.
Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) – for maps and geospatial content.

Always verify copyright status before reproducing or distributing material.

Key uses of material in teaching

Scanning material for private study or research would be covered by fair dealing, under the same conditions and limitations as for print copying (see the tab for Copyright in Assignments and Studying). The scanned copy must not be made available to others, either in print or posted on the web.

You may scan material and make it available on the web under the following conditions:

You own the copyright of the material or the material is out of copyright.
You request written permission from the copyright holder to both convert the material to a digital format and to include it in the resource.
It is for the purposes of an examination or assessed work which contributes to the student's final mark, however the material should be removed from the VLE or website after the exam.
The material is covered by the ICLA Higher Education Licence - see above
If the material already exists in a digital format, provide a link to it rather than scanning it.

You may make material available in a VLE under the following conditions:

It is for the purposes of an examination or assessed work which contributes to the student's final mark (although the material should be removed from the VLE after the work has been completed).
It is a transcribed extract from, or reference to, a source and is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement.
You own the copyright or the material is out of copyright.
You may provide links to freely available websites.
You may provide links to electronic resources to which the institution subscribes, if the licence agreement allows it.
It is covered by the ICLA Higher Education Licence - see above
As multiple copying in print is permitted by the ICLA educational licence, you may provide a print course pack to accompany your VLE.
You request written permission from the copyright holder to include it in the VLE.

As there is no copyright on a web address (http://...) it is permissible to give web links to references under the following conditions:

You should link to the home page as this may carry important information which should not be bypassed, e.g. copyright notices, advertisements. If you wish to deep-link directly to a page beyond the homepage, you should obtain written permission from the rights holder(s).
Link to text rather than logos/graphics unless you have first obtained written permission to use these as links.
Do not use frames or other display mechanisms which may give the impression that someone else's web page(s) is your own work.
Ensure that what you are linking to is not in itself an infringement of copyright.

If you are the author of an unpublished work, including lecture notes, you may make it available to the public by posting it on the web if you wish. If the material is very important or valuable, you may decide not to put it on the web at all.

For published material, make sure you are the copyright holder. You may have assigned the rights in your published work to the publisher. Depending on the particular agreement that is signed, the author retains more or less rights to use the article. Some agreements forbid the author from photocopying the article, using it in teaching, or putting it on the web. The majority of publishers are less restrictive and allow the author to retain rights to use the article as they wish.
The RoMEO website (www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php), run by SHERPA, lists publishers and their associated copyright agreements. Search for a publisher, or a particular journal, to see which rights are assigned to publishers and which are retained by the author.