Permissions for use of quotations, extracts or excerpts from other’s works in your dissertation to be published in DSpace@Cambridge

This guidance note applies only to the deposit and non-commercial dissemination of your dissertation in DSpace@Cambridge, the University’s digital archival repository at the Cambridge University Library, under the DSpace@Cambridge deposit agreement for dissertations.

Guidance contained in this note is not intended to apply to commercial publication of your dissertation for which you should seek advice from your publisher, nor to personal publication of your dissertation for which you may wish to seek independent advice.

By signing up to the deposit of your paper in DSpace@Cambridge, as in most academic publishing agreements, you warrant, i.e. legally promise, that you have obtained sufficient rights for use of quotations or extracts or excerpts from others’ copyright works you may have included in your dissertation, and grant the University a non-exclusive licence for the dissertation to be ‘communicated to the public’ via DSpace@Cambridge and other dissertation databases.

The responsibility for making your dissertation available on the Internet via DSpace@Cambridge lies with you, the dissertation author, and is conditional on your compliance with UK copyright legislation, including the terms of any consent/permission or licence you may obtain from any copyright holder of material included in your dissertation.

The purpose of this note is to explain when you can rely on a legal statutory exception to copyright infringement without seeking the express written permission of a copyright owner to reproduce a quotation, extract or excerpt from their work in your dissertation to be published in DSpace@Cambridge.

Many extracts from works from different sources may have been used by you in your dissertation and therefore you should maintain a written ‘diligence file’. Such a ‘copyright diligence file’ should cover both material that you have reproduced under permission/licence or under a legal statutory exception.

If you have included a quotation, extract or excerpt from another’s work in your dissertation and it is being disseminated by DSpace@Cambridge, you need to acquire written permission from the author or copyright owner in response to your permission request (in many cases, the publisher) to reproduce the quotation or extract or excerpt in DSpace@Cambridge unless

  1. a copyright notice that accompanies the work you have taken an extract from allows for this intended use; or
  2. the quotation or extract or excerpt is from a work that is ’out-of-copyright’; or
  3. your use of the extract meets the requirements for ’fair dealing for the purposes of criticism or review’

Consent/permissions from a copyright holder must include the right for you to disseminate the quotation or extract or excerpt in your dissertation for non-commercial purposes in the University’s digital archival repository and other dissertation databases made available over the Internet.

A sample permission request letter is provided for this purpose at the end of these notes.

Quotations, extracts and excerpts from out-of-copyright works

If copyright no longer subsists in a work, it is said to be in the ‘public domain’ and no permission is required to copy or use that work or quotations, extracts or excerpts from it. Please note that ‘out-of-print’ works are not necessarily out-of-copyright.

UK copyright duration

The Museums Copyright Group provides copyright duration charts authored by Tim Padfield, Information Policy Consultant at the National Archives, covering pre- and post-1 August 1989 UK published and unpublished literary, artistic, dramatic and musical works and Crown copyright works: http://www.museumscopyright.org.uk, ‘Resources’, ‘Other Resources’. Further information on copyright duration for UK works is available from the government’s Intellectual Property Office at http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-duration.htm .

Copyright duration in other countries applied in the UK

Where the country of origin of the work is not the UK or another European Economic Area (EEA) country (European Union (EU) plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) or the author of the work is not an EEA national, copyright duration of a work is that as applied in the ‘country of origin’ (see definition below) as long as that period does not exceed the period for which UK copyright legislation would protect that work (consult above UK copyright duration).

‘Country of origin’ is defined in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 as:

For published works –
If the work is first published in a Berne Convention country and has not been simultaneously published (within 30 days of first publication) elsewhere, the country of origin is that country,
e.g. first published in the US (a Berne Convention country), not published elsewhere, the country of origin is the US. Therefore, if a work is in the public domain in the US, i.e. its copyright has expired, and it had not been simultaneously published elsewhere (within 30 days of first publication), the work is also in the public domain in the UK.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) provides a list of Berne Convention signatories at http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?treaty_id=15

If the work is first published in a country which is not a Berne Convention country (and is not simultaneously published in a Berne Convention country), the country of origin is the country of which the author of the work is a national.
Two exceptions: If the work is a film and the maker of the film has his or her headquarters in, or is domiciled or resident in a Berne Convention country, the country of origin is that country. If the work is a work of architecture constructed in a Berne Convention country or an artistic work incorporated in a building or other structure situated in a Berne Convention country, that country.

If the work is simultaneously published (within 30 days of first publication) in two or more countries only one of which is a Berne Convention country, the country of origin is that country.

If the work is first published simultaneously in two or more countries of which two or more are Berne Convention countries, then
(a) if any of those countries is an EEA state, the country of origin is that country; and
(b) if none of those countries is an EEA state, the country of origin is the Berne Convention country which grants the shorter of shortest period of copyright protection,
e.g. applying (a), if a work is published simultaneously in the UK (an EEA country) and the US (both the UK and US are Berne Convention countries), UK copyright duration rules apply;

For unpublished works –
If the work is unpublished the country of origin is the country of which the author of the work is a national.
Two exceptions: If the work is a film and the maker of the film has his or her headquarters in, or is domiciled or resident in a Berne Convention country, the country of origin is that country. If the work is a work of architecture constructed in a Berne Convention country or an artistic work incorporated in a building or other structure situated in a Berne Convention country, that country.

Therefore, a particular country’s copyright legislation may need to be consulted to determine copyright duration for a particular type of work. UNESCO’s ‘Collection of National Copyright Laws’:
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=14076&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.
National copyright legislation is also often made available in national government websites that deal with the country’s intellectual property regime.

Secondary sources that provide lists of copyright duration for selected countries may be consulted with caution, the information to be verified with the country’s legislation:
Copyright Watch – http://www.copyright-watch.org/home
Caslon Analytics copyright duration – http://www.caslon.com.au/durationprofile.htm
University of Pennsylvania, the Online Books Page – http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/okbooks.html

‘How do I find out whether the book is in the public domain?’.
Copyright duration charts for US copyright works are available from the Copyright Information Center at Cornell University:
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/ , ‘Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States’.

Quotations, extracts or excerpts from literary, artistic, dramatic or musical works, sound recordings, films and broadcasts under the legal statutory exception of ‘Fair dealing for the purposes of criticism or review’

Current UK copyright legislation provides the exemption of ‘fair dealing for the purposes of criticism or review’ that allows for use of short quotations, extracts or excerpts without the permission of the copyright holder of the work from the following types of copyright works that have been made available to the public:

if the following requirements are met:

If the above criteria are not met, you are required to seek permission from the copyright owner whose work you are quoting or taking an extract or excerpt from.

How much of a copyright work can you use to criticise or review?
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the primary UK legislation governing copyright, does not actually specify how much of another’s copyright work can be reproduced under ‘fair dealing for criticism or review’ without permission. However, authors’ and publishers’ associations and others provide useful guidelines on quantitative limits:

The Society of Authors in its ‘Quick Guide to Permissions (2009)’ (accessed 15 July 2010) suggests that they would regard as ‘fair dealing’

the use of a single extract of up to 400 words or a series of extracts (of which none exceeds 300 words) to a total of 800 words from a prose work for the purposes of ‘criticism or review’.

Although provided in the context of fair dealing for the purposes of research for a non-commercial purpose, the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (stm), in its ‘Guidelines for Quotation and Other Academic Uses of Excerpts from Journal Articles (February 2008)’ (accessed 15 July 2010), suggests a quantitative limit of

a maximum of two figures, e.g. tables, charts and diagrams, from a journal article or five figures per journal article volume.

Published jointly by the British Academy and the Publishers Association, ‘Joint Guidelines on Copyright and Academic Research, Guidelines for researchers and publishers in the Humanities and the Social Sciences (April 2008, accessed 15 July 2010)’:

A short but substantial extract from a poem used merely as an epigraph or decoration in a chapter-heading or on a title-page needs consent [from the copyright holder].

Quite lengthy extracts from the same poem analysed as part of, or to illustrate, the argument of another work may well be fair dealing.

Merely summarising the content of a previous work and using quotations to do so is neither criticism or review [and therefore to reproduce the quotations the consent of the copyright holder is required].

Nor is merely re-ordering the content of a previous work.

In a review of publicly available commentary by UK collective copyright licensing organisations on the use of copyright-protected works under the UK statutory exemption/defence to copyright infringement of ‘fair dealing for the purposes of criticism or review’, the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), an organization representing artistic work rights holders, provides a Fact Sheet entitled ‘Use of Copyright Works for the Purpose of Review and Criticism’ (accessed 15 July 2010). Although the Fact Sheet carries a disclaimer that its advice should not be regarded as constituting legal or other advice, it nevertheless neatly summarises the key requirements of ‘fair dealing for the purposes of criticism or review’ as outlined above and provides practical examples of ‘fair dealing’ reproduction of artistic works. In part:

If a work is reproduced and used as the basis for criticism or review that use may be considered “fair dealing”. For example, if the work accompanies an article, which is a review or criticism and is directly commented on in the article, it would be ‘fair’ to reproduce that work’. However, the work must appear within the body of the article. Similarly, if an author of a written piece is expounding a theory about a particular work or an artistic movement and reproduces the work as an example of his theory, illustrating his meaning, this would also be considered “fair”.

The use of ‘comparative’ works may also be fair. For example, it probably would be “fair” to reproduce the work by artist “x” within an article reviewing the work of artist “y” if there is a sufficient link between the two works expounded in the review. It may be “fair” for example, to include the reproduction of a Braque painting in an article which is criticism of Picasso but also deals with the comparison or influences…

Using distorted, cropped or tinted images, additions, etc, or any treatment considered a derogatory treatment, cannot be considered “fair” in any context and may infringe moral rights and should be avoided…

All reproductions of copyright works which may be considered “fair” must be accompanied by sufficient and full acknowledgement (i.e. title of the work and the artist’s name). Reproductions not acknowledged or credited are NOT CONSIDERED “FAIR”…

In sum, if the use of an extract or excerpt from another’s work included in a dissertation to be published in DSpace does not meet the requirements of the ‘out-of-copyright exemption or does not meet the fair dealing for the purposes of criticism or review exemption requirements or permission has not been acquired by licence from the copyright owner, written permission needs to be obtained from the copyright owner (in many cases, the publisher, many publisher sites providing online permission request services). A sample permission request letter is given below.

Sample Permission Letter for use of quotations or extracts or excerpts from others’ copyright works in your dissertation being published by DSpace@Cambridge

[Return address]
[Date]
[Name and address of copyright owner]

Dear [     ],

I am completing [or have completed] my doctoral [or MSc or MLitt] dissertation at the University of Cambridge entitled
[‘Insert full title of dissertation’].

I seek your permission to reprint the following extract in my dissertation:
[Insert full citation of the original work.]

The extract to be reproduced is: [Insert details and/or attach copy of extract if possible].

The requested permission extends to the prospective publication of my dissertation by the Cambridge University Library via its digital archival repository DSpace@Cambridge, the British Library Electronic Thesis Online Service (EthOS) and other dissertation databases. The rights you provide me will in no way restrict your use of your work or by others authorised by you. Your signing of this letter will also confirm that you own [or your company owns] the copyright to the above-described material.

If you are agreeable to this arrangement, I would be most grateful if you would please sign this letter below and return it to me in the enclosed return envelope.

Yours sincerely,
[Name and signature of dissertation author]

Permission granted for the the use requested above:

Signed:

Please print your name and title
and company name (if applicable):

Date:

What if permission is granted

If a positive response to your permission request is received you should include details about this at the appropriate place in your thesis, e.g. "Permission to reproduce this [details of content ] has been granted by [ rights holder information] ". Letters or emails confirming permissions should be kept secure and made available for consultation if any questions relating to rights were to be raised.

What if permission is not granted

If permission for reuse of 3rd party copyright materials cannot be negotiated it is possible to work around this by limiting access to sections of a thesis or by removing the particular sections from the thesis completely. For further details, please contact the DSpace@Cambridge team.

Reuse of own publications

If you wish to include academic papers or other content that has already been published you need to check if the publisher will permit you to include these in your thesis. In the original publishing process you will have signed a "Transfer of copyright agreement" or its equivalent. This should indicate whether or not you have rights to reuse the article in your thesis. If the agreement does not mention reuse then the publisher should be contacted in order to acquire appropriate permission. Please note that many publishers have different policies on use of articles for inclusion in these than for self archiving purposes as indicated in the Sherpa Romeo database. It is therefore recommended that the publisher is contacted directly.