Dear all,

Last month, I posted the following enquiry.  "I have been asked to attend a copyright workshop for PhD students working in our School of Art & Design.  In the same workshop last year there was an issue around copyright clearance for images within a PhD thesis and this is due to be discussed again this year (I wasn’t in this post last year).
 
As I understand it, at the submission stage, images used in a PhD thesis don’t require copyright clearance as examination exemptions apply.  However, once the thesis is published ‘publicly’ – for example on our intranet or on the BL’s EThOS site, normal copyright rules apply.
 
We have information about obtaining permissions from publishers, but images that our students use are not usually taken from books but from a variety of sources, including catalogues, artists’ families, private and gallery collections, etc. and getting these permissions is a long and expensive process, as there are frequently a large quantity of images in the PhD thesis.
 
Is this an issue that has arisen in your institutions as I would welcome any input?"


Many thanks to all who replied with useful information that I was then able to take to our Copyright Workshop last week.  It also sparked off some email exchanges with individual institutions and confirmed to me that it was a current topic of interest.  The School of Art and Design here found the pro-forma template suggestion very useful and we are going ahead with that as a start.


Here is a summary of replies from other institutions, with acknowledgement to the responding institution:

Placeholders (LSE)
Insert image ‘placeholders’ into the published version of the thesis to block or cover content, particularly for PDFs.  Software can be used to do this but more information needed on how this is done.

Template letter (Aberystwyth)
Create pro-forma request documentation to help students contact copyright owners.  If permission is refused or there is a charge, then students should extract the image before depositing the thesis online.

Redacted copy/submit two versions (Birmingham, LSE, Sotheby’s & Aberystwyth)
Consider making an additional redacted copy of the thesis for online publication. This will either have permission granted for the inclusion of all 3rd party image content, or such content extracted by their institution or the student.  However, this could be work intensive and not user-friendly in the published thesis.

Appendix (Reading)
Submit images in an appendix at the back of the thesis and don’t make the appendix available in the online version.  (Concern that this could compromise the integrity of the thesis.)

Class as criticism and review (Reading)
This is a valid defence under copyright law and relies on the institution’s notice and takedown policy.

Keep full records and think ahead (Birmingham & Oxford)
…of your image resource as you go along to make it easier to clear rights and obtain for permissions.

Embargo (Reading & Aberystwyth)
Consider an embargo all Arts theses containing images from online publication.


Reply from BL EThOS Licensing & Copyright Department

'We do not require the rights to be cleared before we put a thesis on EThOS' 'It is up to the individual to decide if they wish to clear the third party rights on their thesis'

External links suggested


Creative Commons Licenses
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/  

Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) and Bodleian links
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ora/oxford_etheses/preparing_your_thesis

http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ora/oxford_etheses/copyright_and_other_legal_issues

http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ora/oxford_etheses/training_on_ora_for_theses_for_pg_research_students

Birmingham University
http://www.library.bham.ac.uk/support/copyright/Theses.shtml 

Bradford University
www.bradford.ac.uk/library/documents/copyright_phd_theses.docx

DACS (Design & Artists Copyright Society) Tipsheet
http://www.dacs.org.uk/pdfs/Universities%20schools%20and%20colleges%20NEW.pdf 

JISC Digital Media
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/stillimages/advice/copyright-and-digital-images

Intellectual Property Office
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-other/c-exception/c-exception-research.htm

Thanks again,

Kind regards,

Christine Lambert
University of Wolverhampton

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