The School’s Intellectual Property Policy states that in most cases you own the copyright in teaching materials and grant LSE a royalty-free licence for three years from the date of creation to enable it to carry out its educational mission. (See 2.1.3.)
Section 2.4 of LSE’s Intellectual Property Policy outlines that LSE staff own the rights in their performance in any lecture or teaching session. Staff grant LSE a licence to use this content for the purpose of delivering LSE’s curriculum to LSE students.
Use of others (3rd party) copyright
For introductory information on 3rd party copyright please consult the Copyright Essentials guide.
Licences which enable the use of others’ copyright works when teaching include:
- CLA licence – see below for information on requesting digitisation of material for reading lists
- ERA licence - access to film and radio content is provided via BOB, Box of Broadcasts
- Creative Commons licences - you do not need to pay to use CC licensed resources, or ask their creators for permission – though you do need to adhere to the terms of the licence.
- Licences for access to specific films via providers such as Kanopy.
Please see our Licensing page for further details.
Legal exceptions relevant when teaching include:
Criticism, review or quotation and/or Illustration for instruction: these permit the re-use of part of a copyright work, as long as use in the work is fair (i.e. you use only as much as is necessary to support the point you are making, and your use of the work will not economically disadvantage the copyright holder).
Performing, playing or showing work in course of activities of educational establishment: this permits the showing of films or playing of recorded audio to students in person without needing permission from the copyright owner.
If you are teaching online and wish to show film or broadcast material, please contact the Copyright Officer to discuss how this can be delivered within the legal copyright framework.
Please see the page copyright and images, film and media for further information on using audio-visual copyrighted work outside of a teaching context (eg, in a film club).
Copyright and lecture recording
Whilst the inclusion of other’s work within a lecture is generally covered by copyright exceptions, including this work within the lecture recording can lead to copyright infringement. This is because the recording creates a new copy of the work, and the right to authorise copying rests with the copyright holder.
The ERA licence covers the School’s use of film or broadcast works. Via our ERA subscription we have access to Box of Broadcasts (BoB), a streaming service which contains broadcast content (radio, news, documentaries, films etc). BoB’s Terms & Conditions allow for the showing of content within a lecture but do not permit a recording of the complete work in the resulting lecture capture. You can make content available to students after the lecture by including an embedded link in your Moodle course.
The Eden Centre’s Digital Education Wiki includes further guidance on copyright and recorded lectures.
Copyright and exam papers
Including a 3rd party copyright work, for example a passage of text in an exam paper, is permitted under the ‘Illustration for instruction’ copyright exception. You should only include as much as is necessary to support or explain the point being made. The source/s used should be fully attributed.
Digitising material for reading lists
There are limits on the proportion of text that can be copied / scanned and made available to students on a course. LSE subscribes to the CLA’s Higher Education licence which sets out what is permitted. The Library provides a scanned readings and reading list service which provides content for reading lists within the boundaries of the licence.
Copyright law exceptions and students with My Adjustments
Students whose disability affects their ability to use a copyright work in the same way as someone without a disability are covered by copyright exceptions which allow content to be altered to a format which is accessible to them.
This may include copying text into a large print version, converting a print book to audio, adding subtitles to films or broadcasts, or making text available in a format which is more accessible to students with dyslexia.
Where possible, the library anticipates the need for students to be provided with accessible copies of essential reading list items. Please contact library.disability.assistance@lse.ac.uk with any questions you may have in relation to support for students with My Adjustments.
Open Educational Resources (OERs)
OERs are materials that can be used and re-used freely by educators, and include lesson plans, case studies, activities and games and textbooks. Examples include:
The National Teaching Repository: a searchable database linking to teaching resources, pedagogical research, approaches and ideas.
MIT Open Courseware: Search for courses, materials and teaching resources across a wide-range of academic subjects.
OpenLearn: A selection of free courses produced by the Open University. For material where the OU owns the copyright, content is licensed for use under a CC BY-NC-SA license.
OER Commons: This site has a US focus but contains a wealth of material.
TED Talks / TED Ed: TED Talks, unless otherwise indicated are licensed via a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. TED Ed allows users to take any TED Talk, TED-Ed lesson or educational video and create a lesson plan with customised content (registration needed).