Intellectual Property (IP)

Obtaining and sharing information online is so easy that it's not always obvious when we step over the legal line. IP is creative or intellectual work which can be considered as an asset or physical property, and the laws which protect IP are:

• copyright - writings and recordings
• trademarks - product or organisational branding
• design rights - the appearance of a product
• patents - industrial processes and inventions

More information about Intellectual Property: UK Copyright Service and How to try to avoid violating IP laws 

Copyright

Copyright is the legal protection that enables the creator of an original work to control how it is used. Copyright subsists in original works of all sorts, including:

• literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works
• web pages, computer programs, and databases
• sound recordings, films and broadcasts
• typographical arrangements of published editions
• images, diagrams, graphs and charts

As a student you you will probably need to search for digital content to adapt for your own purposes.

 This video from Common Sense Education outlines the basics of Copyright and the US term Fair Use.  You should be aware that in the UK the laws are a little different and exceptions to copyright in education come under the term Fair Dealing, which slightly different in some aspects:  

Intellectual Property Permissions

Many people openly share their digital content online, and this will be clearly labelled where you find the content. The creators or owners give away certain rights to users and often make the resources accessible through a repository. The rights you are granted as a user may or may not include permission to download, modify or use for commercial or educational purposes. In any case, you always need to credit the person who created the materials.

What kinds of permission granted to you as a user will be included in these types of licences:

• Creative Commons - Six licence types which creators can apply to their creative work in order to give certain permissions regarding re-use.
• Open Content / Open Source - Creative work that the owner permits others to copy or modify. "Open Content" includes Open Educational Resources. "Open Source" applies to software and its code.
•  GNU General Public Licence - A licence which gives users the right to 'copy, redistribute, and modify a work' but also requires any copies or derivatives to be made available under the same licence. The GNU General Public Licence is not as frequently found in the UK and is used more often with software rather than other types of content.

All rights reserved - A phrase found on some creative work indicating that the copyright holder retains their full rights regarding the work, does not allow use and especially no derivatives.

"It's so easy to just grab stuff from the internet. You need to get in the habit of checking sources and citing everything. After all, you wouldn't want people nicking your stuff!" Marco, 1st-year student