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Getting started with copyright

Discover how you can start learning and engaging with copyright, and why this is important for you.

What is copyright?

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines copyright (also known as author's right) as:

"a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings."

Copyright laws differ across countries. In the UK, the legal framework for copyright is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 

Who should engage with copyright?

Everyone.

We are all users and creators of materials that are protected by copyright: dissertations, articles, books, websites, photos, diagrams, emails, videos, music and computer code, to name a few examples. Respecting the rights of others and understanding your own is essential for your studies, research, teaching and other activities beyond academia.

Ignoring copyright could lead to legal action against you; but equally importantly, it could restrict how you use materials created by others and how you manage. license and share your own works in different contexts, including when making your research more open.

Examples where considering copyright is essential

  • Using text, photos or diagrams in a dissertation.
  • Posting images on a website or on social media.
  • Publishing an article or a book.
  • Showing a film in a lecture.
  • Signing an agreement with a publisher.
  • Using someone else's computer code when writing a computer programme.
  • Making your research open access.
  • Copying material from an archive.
  • Reproducing parts of a book in another book.
  • Sharing your own publications, e.g. on websites and in teaching.
  • Providing course readings to students.
  • Linking to a website or YouTube video.
  • Sharing your research data.
  • Using GenAI tools.
  • Telling others this is your work/allowing or restricting reuse.

Get started with copyright literacy

Learn, understand and become more confident around copyright
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Get together

Transform

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  • Copyright should evolve alongside developments in scholarly communication, knowledge sharing and AI. Help transform the way copyright is understood and practised within UCL and beyond: take part in collaborative projects, co-create resources and contribute to external consultations. You can do this via the UCL Copyright Literacy Community and/or by attending events and joining relevant discussions. Follow the UCL Copyright blog for copyright updates.
  • Read the UCL Copyright Literacy Strategy. You are encouraged to contribute to its implementation by suggesting and participating in relevant projects.

Contact

Email copyright@ucl.ac.uk

Training

Copyright blog

Learning about copyright: a perspective from a work placement student

Guest post by Artas Balciunas, work experience student at UCL.

Artas, currently in his first year at college, had his work experience week with the UCL copyright support team in March 2025. Here is his perspective on copyright from a student’s point of view.

Are you a human? Then UCL’s new copyright card game is for you!

If someone ‘infringed your copyright’ i.e. reproduced your work without your permission, would you be…angry? Flattered? Unconcerned? And when you use, say, an image created by someone else, do you think…you always need permission? Or that it’s fine without permission as long as you give credit to the author?  Or that it’s OK as long as the use is ‘educational’?

Happy 2025! What’s new in copyright?

Happy New Year and welcome to the new term at UCL!

New works in the public domain

2025 already promises to be exciting in terms of copyright. For one thing, on the first of January many new literary, artistic and musical works entered the public domain (i.e. copyright expired, making it possible to reuse these works without permission).

Developing a Copyright Literacy Community at UCL

Copyright literacy – the ‘knowledge, skills and behaviours that individuals require when working with copyright content in the digital age’ (Morrison and Secker, 2015) – is an essential part of academic and professional skillsets. It is also much more than complying with licences and the law. It is about understanding how copyright came to be, what it seeks to achieve, whose interests are relevant and how it can be used as a tool to make knowledge more open and collaborative.

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