2026-27
Copyright Regulations
40.1 Regulations under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, permit limited copying of in-copyright material by individuals in connection with their research or private study. This exception is reduced to fair dealing only for research for a non-commercial purpose, or for private study. This exception extends to all copyright works, including, for example, video recordings, broadcasts or online resources. There is also an obligation that sufficient acknowledgement (e.g. the author's name plus a bibliographic citation) is required unless it is impractical.
40.2 Copying beyond these limits can only be permitted if the material is not in copyright (i.e. in most cases if the author has been dead for more than 70 years and typographical copyright that lasts 25 years has lapsed) or if the owner of the copyright gives specific permission in each case. More information on copyright for research and private study is available at www.copyrightuser.org/understand/exceptions/research-private-study/.
40.3 The University has signed a licence with the Copyright Licensing Agency which covers photocopying and scanning for course use. Please see the library's web pages for more information. Library staff can answer queries regarding this licence at library-readinglists@glasgow.ac.uk.
40.4 Material under copyright should not be uploaded to third-party Large Language Models and similar AI tools. An exception under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988) allows Text and Data Mining for non-commercial research. However, with the exception of the University of Glasgow signed-in version of CoPilot, third-party AI tools would likelynot qualify as non-commercial.
40.5 There are many further issues surrounding copyright and intellectual property rights which staff and students need to be aware of during their everyday work in the University. Guidelines are available throughout the University web pages. The Academic Development website gives guidance for using material in Moodle and Media production. The following webpage offers copyright support to staff and students: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/copyright/. The page contains resources for the use of media in teaching, learning and studying along with advice on the use of UK Copyright Exceptions.
Staff, students and researchers can request copyright support/advice and view resources via the institution's IT Helpdesk service.
University of Glasgow staff and students should make use of the Box of Broadcasts (BoB) subscription based service, which enables subscribing institutions to legally record and view TV programmes and films both on and off campus.