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Bloomsbury Learning Environment: Copyright Guidance for SOAS Staff

  1. Why is copyright relevant to the BLE?
  2. Do I need to put a copy on the BLE? Linking vs copying
  3. When can I put material on the BLE without infringing copyright?
    1. You or SOAS owns the copyright
    2. The copying is covered by our CLA licence
    3. The copying is covered by fair dealing for criticism, review or reporting current events
    4. The material is out of copyright
    5. You have permission from the copyright owner
    6. Examination purposes
  4. Who can place material on the BLE?
  5. Further information and advice
  6. Glossary

In brief...

  • Any item which staff place on the BLE will be protected by copyright unless it is out of copyright - so you need to make sure that you don't use the BLE in ways that may infringe copyright.
  • You don't need to put a copy on the BLE if you can link to the item instead. Linking does not infringe copyright because no copying is involved. The Library can help you to set up links to items from an electronic version of your reading list: contact the Electronic Services team or your faculty or subject librarian.
  • You can place items on the BLE without violating copyright if:
  • The CLA scanning licence allows staff to scan extracts from most books and journals published in the UK or USA and put the extract on the BLE, provided the original work is held in the SOAS Library or is otherwise owned by SOAS. However, you should check first to see whether students can already access the item electronically via the Library's website.
  • The CLA scanning licence allows staff to scan extracts from some other countries. If the extract you wish to scan was published outside the UK or US, check the CLA website (see Licences/What can be copied/International Territories) and/or seek advice from the Information Compliance Manager.
  • Before scanning under the CLA licence, you have to register as someone who is authorised to do scanning under the licence. You should check to make sure that the item is covered by the licence, and that the amount which you want to scan is permitted by the licence. If the item can be scanned under the licence, you have to report details of what you want to scan using a CLA licence reporting form, so that they can be included in SOAS's return to the CLA. The Information Compliance Manager will then send you a CLA copyright notice (including some of the information which you've supplied), which must be included at the front of the item when you scan the item. For further details including links to the forms to use, see The copying is covered by our CLA licence.
  • Any member of staff involved in teaching a course can digitise material, and another staff member can digitise material on their behalf (as long, of course, as they have registered to do so). However, scanning under the CLA licence should never be done by students.
  • Remember that the Library subscribes to thousands of electronic journals and is building up its holdings of e-books. Students can access most of these resources remotely. You can add links to electronic journals and e-books to the BLE, but you shouldn't take an article which you've downloaded from an electronic journal and put the file on the BLE. The Library can help you to set up links from your reading lists (see above).
  • You can add links to external websites to the BLE, but never download material from the web and put it on the BLE without the website's permission.

A Quick Guide to how to comply with copyright when putting material on the BLE is also available.

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