Copyright in Schools
Schools are responsible for ensuring that they obtain all the necessary copyright
licences to cover their activities.
A Guide to Copyright Licensing in Schools (www.licensing-copyright.org)
provides the information that you need to ensure that all the necessary copyright
licences have been obtained. The
Guidance Leaflet available to order or download from the website will help
you to identify some of the main activities which need to be licensed and to direct
you to the appropriate organisation for further advice and guidance.
The Copyright Licensing Agency publish
guidelines and
licensing documentation for schools. They also publish
guidelines covering photocopying for visually impaired pupils or
staff and
Joint Industry Guidelines. The CLA produce an
explanatory leaflet that gives details of exactly what is covered by
a school's copyright license and a list of
Excluded Categories and Excluded Works.
As schools now have easier access to image, text and sound resources through the
Internet it is important that all colleagues and pupils are made aware of the copyright
implications when downloading and using these resources.
'The Teachers Guide to Copyright and the Classroom Teacher' is a Naace
publication giving practical advice for teachers on what they need to know about
copyright in many classroom situations. This can be ordered from the
Naace website.
As quoted in the Naace publication "...Just because you CAN download a picture doesn't
mean to say that you MAY download it...". So it is really important for
staff and pupils to understand that if they are going to use resources from someone
else - they must gain permission from the copyright holder before using it.
What do you do if you want to show a video or DVD in school?
You will need a Public Video Screening Licence to show any flilms or film
clips in school because the showing of a film in public in the UK is an act restricted
by the copyright in the film. As a result, all public film screenings require the
licence of the copyright owner.
You can find more information about showing films in schools and obtain the
PVS Licence from Filmbank Distributors
Ltd (“Filmbank”).
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