Guidelines to clarify vexed copyright issues

The guidelines on copyright and academic research were drawn up to provide clear guidance on the complex issue of copyright law, and to address some of the biggest problems, including fair dealing exemptions, digital material, and orphan works (where the copyright owner can’t be traced).

Economist John Kay, who chaired the working party that drafted the guidelines, said academics often had a poor understanding of copyright issues and the law itself was unclear.

“There’s partly the issue of lack of knowledge, but also because the law is intentionally vague, and hasn’t been filled by case law, we thought there was room for a statement of what people think is reasonable,” Kay said. “We thought a statement by the British Academy and Publishers Association would have quite a lot of force in terms of what is reasonable.”

He added: “Quite often publishers themselves don’t really know what the position is, and are often very conservative by virtue of that fact. But if things are covered by exemptions in the Copyright Act, you often don’t have to ask anyone’s permission.”

Kay said he hoped the guidelines (available by clicking here) would give people more confidence in their use of copyright materials.