Fair Dealing Week 2024

What is Fair Dealing? You might also have heard the term “Fair Use”, the equivalent legal term in the USA. Whenever you’re using copyrighted material, whether it’s with the permission of the copyright holder or under an exemption, your use must be “Fair Dealing” – namely the amount you’re using has to feel fair to the copyright holder. For example, using a whole copyrighted journal article as part of an academic work probably wouldn’t be fair to the copyright holder. Using sections of an author’s argument to convey their position, referring it to wider scholarship or developing your own argument in response to their position, would probably be fair use.

As such, this Fair Dealing Week is a good time to reflect on copyright, how it works and why it’s important. If you’re looking to use work by someone else as part of your work, you need to go through this basic checklist:

Do I need to seek copyright permission? Unless you’re under an exemption (listed here in the library’s copyright pages), you need permission from the copyright holder to use the work.

Have I followed fair dealing? Does the amount I’m looking to use feel “fair” to the copyright holder?

Have I credited where this work is from? Always crediting the copyright holder is good practice.

It’s also worth looking at open access alternatives. Creative Commons offers a range of copyright licenses which allow creators to make their work available for reuse provided it follows a standard set of principles e.g. only being used non-commercially, available for remixing and adaption. You can make your own work available using this method, just check the Creative Commons website for more guidance on how to do that. 

Public domain refers to works which have now left copyright, due to their publication date being sufficiently long ago. Every January, a range of works become available in the public domain and can be used without fear of needing to consult the copyright holder. One famous example is Winnie the Pooh. Whilst the red jumper wearing Pooh from Disney’s movie remains in copyright, Pooh himself was released to the public domain last year, prompting a horror movie take on the concept called “Blood and Honey”. To quote Tim X Price, “Red shirt on the bear, artists beware. If nude he be, your Pooh is free”.

This year is also shaping up to be an interesting one as Mickey Mouse’s earliest iteration, Steamboat Willie, entered the public domain. However, where some versions of a character remain in copyright, legal issues can still result. Last year, Netflix saw a legal case due to their recent Holmes adaption as the Conan Doyle estate argued that Sherlock Holmes as an empathic figure was only a feature of the later works (which remain in copyright).

Copyright can be quite complicated, so always feel free to ask the Copyright Advice team for more information if you need it. We can be reached at digitisation@leedsbeckett.ac.uk. You can also view our Copyright in 3 minutes: a guide for staff video and our student version.