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”).