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Copyright Guide

This guide will help you to find out how copyright affects your study, research and work here at the University of Derby. Please note that information on these pages is for guidance only: it should not be construed as formal legal advice.

How do I request copyright permission?

To request copyright permission you will need to contract the Rights Holder, this could be the photographer, artist, composer, author or perhaps even the publisher. If you have used any materials from an archive you will need to seek permission if you reproduce any work held by them.

A verbal agreement is difficult to prove legally, best practice would be to request copyright permission in writing. This does not need to be a letter, it can also be an email. When requesting permission to use copyrighted material in your work, you may want to use the following example permission letter as a template. Although this is for a PhD thesis you can amend this to suit your purposes. 

A template for a letter requesting permission for use of copyrighted material.

It is important that you stress the open-access, online nature of the electronic copy of your thesis on UDORA - uploading a document online constitutes publishing it, and doing so without permission is taken seriously by many copyright holders. 

Keep a record of all the emails and letters you send, and all the replies. Keeping track of any copyright permissions or licences you have obtained is useful and necessary for the lifetime of the item you wish to reproduce. The checklist below will give you an idea of the type of information you need to keep.

Checklist for keeping track of any copyright permissions or licences you have obtained.

Make sure to leave plenty of time to obtain all the permissions. If you don't hear back after 6 weeks then repeat your request. Remember no reply does not mean you have copyright permission.

 

What might the copyright holder's response be?

Copyright holder’s response

Next step

Embargo for placing thesis in UDORA

Yes

Reference the item and acknowledge that permission has been granted. For example: Photograph reproduced with permission of Miss W. Pigeon 

No embargo needed

Yes but with conditions

The copyright holder may require a link to the published material; or a formally worded acknowledgement; or a delay in placing the work on the web.

Discuss embargo with your supervisor. Consult the PhD Regulations on how to apply for an embargo before submitting for examination.

No

Submit a revised version of your thesis to UDORA with the copyrighted material redacted.

Discuss with your supervisor if the removal of this element renders the work unusable. Consult the PhD regulations on how to apply for an embargo before submitting for examination.

Tips for editing your eTheses when permission is NOT given 

  • Look at images licenced under a Creative Commons licence that will suit your purpose, or images now in the public domain.
  • Insert blank pages to replace any illustrations that cannot be publicly displayed. Use standard text like ‘This material is unavailable due to copyright restrictions’.
  • Give more details regarding the blank pages by describing the material and retaining the numbering of the illustrations so that they match your List of Figures and/or Illustrations. E.g. ‘Fig. 10 illustration is unavailable due to copyright restrictions’.