Assignment: the transfer of ownership or rights from one party to another.
Attribution: the act of crediting a particular author for their work.
Copyright: legally grants the creator of an original work exclusive control over its use, including reproduction, distribution and adaptation. In the UK the standard copyright term is life plus 70 years.
Copyright Licensing Agency (The): UK government-recognised body responsible for managing the collective licensing of text and images from books, journals, and magazines. It simplifies copyright compliance by providing licenses that allow organisations to legally copy and share copyrighted content.
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA): the main piece of legislation governing UK copyright law
Creative Commons: a non-profit organisation that offers various copyright licenses to allow creators to share their work more flexibly.
Derivative Work: a new creation that is based on an existing work (e.g. a translation). This typically requires permission from the original copyright owner unless it falls under fair dealing exceptions.
Economic Rights: these give the copyright holder the opportunity to benefit financially from the use (and reuse) of their works. If these rights are infringed then the copyright holder can claim compensation.
Fair Dealing: in the UK, fair dealing exceptions allow certain uses of copyrighted works without permission if deemed fair. Each case is unique, but generally, if the use doesn’t impact sales and the amount copied is reasonable, it may be considered fair.
Fair Use: the U.S. equivalent of fair dealing, recognised as being wider in scope than the UK’s fair dealing. Just because the re-use of a work is permitted under US law, doesn’t mean that it will be allowed within the UK.
Infringement: The unauthorised copying, distribution, or modification of a copyrighted work.
Intellectual property: refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, and symbols, which are legally protected to allow creators to earn recognition or financial benefit from their work.
Licence: an agreement that permits the use of a work under specific conditions set by the rights holder.
Moral rights: in copyright law these rights protect the personal and reputational interests of creators. They include the right to be identified as the author and the right to object to derogatory treatment of the work. In the UK, moral rights cannot be sold or transferred, but the rights holder can waive these rights.
Open Access (OA): refers to research outputs being freely accessible online in digital format, without cost to the reader and with limited restrictions on reuse. This model aims to make scholarly work accessible to a wider audience, enhancing the dissemination and impact of research.
Open Educational Resources (OERs): are teaching, learning, and research materials that are freely available for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. These resources can include textbooks, course materials, videos, tests, software, and any other tools that support access to knowledge.
Public Domain: often associated with older works, if a resource is in the public domain, it means it is not protected by intellectual property laws like copyright, trademark, or patent. This allows anyone to use, modify, and distribute the work freely without needing permission.
Typographical arrangement: the layout and design of text on a page or screen, including the selection and arrangement of typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line spacing, and letter spacing. In the UK copyright in typographical arrangements lasts for 25 years.