Skip to Main Content

Copyright for lecturers

This guide provides guidance on copyright when: 

  • doing live teaching 
  • using Moodle and Panopto. 

General points on copyright and teaching

It is important to comply with copyright in your teaching because copyright infringement brings a number of potential risks: 

  • having to remove and/or re-work teaching materials 
  • reputational damage to the University 
  • financial penalties 
  • possible breach of employment contract leading to disciplinary proceedings. 

It is your responsibility to ensure compliance with copyright, and the University’s to provide you with advice and guidance to assist you with this.  

Fortunately, exceptions to copyright and the various licences the University holds make complying with copyright easier. 

Using audio visual materials

Leeds Trinity University has an ERA (Educational Recording Agency) licence. This means that staff and students can record TV and radio programmes for educational use without seeking individual permissions.  

BoB (Box of Broadcasts)  

BoB is an off-air recording service, with a large archive of United Kingdom television and radio output.  

You can easily create playlists and clips and embed these and whole programmes into Moodle – BoB’s Frequently asked questions includes instructions on how to do this.  

Note however that: 

  • materials from BoB must not be downloaded or copied.  
  • BoB is not accessible from outside of the United Kingdom, so is not suitable for use in distance learning programmes with international students.  

TRILT 

Not all broadcast output is on BoB. You are able to use Learning on Screen’s TRILT service to request a download or DVD copy of items, sourced via the Off-Air Back-Up Recording Service. You can play DVDs supplied via this during lectures.  

YouTube  

YouTube is an extensive source of videos. Its Terms of service allow you to embed videos in your online teaching materials, and Leeds Trinity’s Digital Learning Team have provided a guide on how to do this.  

However, many videos on YouTube are uploaded without the copyright owner’s permission, which potentially means an infringement of copyright. It is therefore best to only use videos from official channels such as the BBC, or where you know for certain that the uploader is the copyright owner.  

Commercially bought DVDS and videos 

It is fine to show these during live lectures, but they must not be included in any recordings of lectures. Pause any Panopto recordings while these are being shown, or edit the recording. See How to trim a video in the editor for instructions on editing.  

Using audio visual materials in lecture recordings 

You can play clips and whole programmes from BoB, YouTube and other sites in live lectures but should not include them in recordings of lectures. Pause any Panopto recordings while these are being shown or edit the recording. See How to trim a video in the editor for instructions on editing.  

If you want to showcase a student’s work (video, podcast etc) in a lecture recording, you should seek their written permission to do so, and if granted keep a record of this.  

Using images

The Digital images and copyright page provides you with guidance on this area, including sources of copyright free and copyright friendly images that can be used in teaching.  

Using book chapters and journal articles

It is generally fine to use a brief quotation from a book chapter or journal article in teaching materials such as PowerPoint presentations, as long as this is appropriately referenced. These are covered by the exceptions to copyright

Uploading of PDFs of journal articles or book chapters to Moodle is not permitted, unless these are out of copyright.  

For items in Leeds Trinity University Library’s digital collections, you should provide a hyperlink with a reference instead.  

For items that you want to make available to students that are either in printed format available in Leeds Trinity’s own collections or not available in either our collections of online or printed resources,  please contact the Library Reading List team at readinglists@leedstrinity.ac.uk with details of the module and item that you require.  Please do not scan hard copy book chapters or journal articles yourself and upload them to Moodle. This applies even if you are the author of a work, unless you have self-published it, as the rights holder will be the publisher.  

Using websites

Content on websites is also protected by copyright. Some but not all websites will contain a copyright or more general terms of use statement, which you should read carefully.

In general, hyperlinking to websites rather than copying content should be used, although quotation of short extracts with due acknowledgement will generally be deemed acceptable under fair dealing provisions.  

Are you looking for?