Murray Weston, former CEO of the British Universities Film and Video Council gave a very helpful insight into the legal situation regarding copyright of moving images and the exceptions which grant UK educational institutions the opportunity to use some of these sources legally and freely. Murray has first hand experience of the process, having personally been involved in many of the discussions that developed the current permissions. The slides were presented at the Higher Education Academy-sponsored event Making the Most of Broadcast Media in Your Teaching, which took place at the University of Leicester (UK) on 14th January 2014.

1. Copyright, the Educational Recording
Agency and all that
you can do more than you think….
Murray Weston
former CEO, BUFVC

2. Copyright legislation to be aware of….an evolving story
1710 Statute of Anne
1911 Imperial Copyright Act
1956 Copyright Act
1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act
2003 SI 2498
2014 SI????

3. Using broadcast content in the 1970s and early 1980s
• Radio programmes could be captured using tape-recorders,
but there was no arrangement in UK copyright law to permit it
• Television programmes could be captured on videotape but
there was no arrangement in UK copyright law to permit it
• Use of broadcast content in education was regarded as
public performance

4. Using broadcast content in the 1970s and early 1980s
• BBC television and radio channels produced selected
‘educational’ programmes for schools and designated ‘E’
programmes that could be recorded and held for two
years
• ITV broadcasters offered a similar service
• The Open University offered an ‘off-air recording licence’
via Guild Sound and Vision

5. Using broadcast content in the 1970s and early 1980s
• in 1982 Channel 4 was launched and, like The OU,
offered a transactional ‘off-air recording licence’ via
Guild Sound and Vision

6. Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 - the big change
Section 35
• ‘Educational Establishments’ in the UK permitted to
record any broadcast
• recordings could be made ‘for on on behalf of’ an
Educational Establishment
But
• where a licence is offered, this must be paid
• recordings must be marked to indicate their having
been recorded under licence

7. Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 - the big change
Section 35
• the Educational Recording Agency licence is the main
licence offered under this exception
• the Open University also offered a transactional licence
for recording its programmes

8. Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 - the big change
Section 34
• showing a broadcast ‘in the course of instruction’ in a
UK Educational Establishment is not a ‘public
performance’

9. What could you do with the recordings?
• keep the content for as long as you are licensed
• use the content for learning and research
• copy the content to different media in multiple copies
• ingest the content to a campus-based delivery system
• make extracts (provided that ‘due acknowledgement’ is given)
• use content to set and answer examination questions
• swap content with other licensed bodies

10. What could you do with the recordings?
• BUFVC offered its members a unique ‘off-air recording
back-up service’ which continues to this day
• BUFVC also developed the UK’s best online listings service
to identify broadcast content – TRILT – the Television and
Radio Index for Learning and Teaching

11. What you could not do with the recordings…..
• make them available for hire or sale
• make ‘new’ productions
• deliver the content ‘off-campus’*
• deliver the content outside the UK
• use the recordings in public performances (i.e.
exhibiting to those not giving or receiving instruction)

12. The next phase in evolution
• the ERA created an additional licence – ERA+ for those
wishing to deliver content online, off-campus
• the BUFVC released BoB, the Box of Broadcasts, a
shared service for ERA+ licensed bodies
• the Open University then merged its licence with the ERA
licence
• the Government explored changing the educational
exceptions to copyright

13. and from 1st April 2014 – new Statutory
Instrument?
• the ERA licence will automatically cover delivery online ‘offcampus’ using a secure network
• extracts of broadcasts, films and sound recordings may be
copied under ‘fair dealing’ to be used as ‘quotations’
• ‘format shifting’ of content may be permitted
• broadcasts, film and sound recordings will move closer
toward the status of text in the scholarly corpus

14. murray@bufvc.ac.uk