Contact information
Irish Copyright Licensing Agency CLG
info@icla.ie
If a teacher creates a class resource such as a PowerPoint presentation or other teaching material that forms an independent and original whole, the teacher owns the copyright to this material. The teacher decides for themselves whether they allow other people to use the material that they have created.
A resource created by a teacher is protected by copyright if it exceeds the threshold of originality. If, however, it is based on an existing work, then the teacher must give credit to the original work and cannot make their work available to others without the permission of the original creator.
It is generally not part of a teacher’s job duties to create teaching materials for other teachers. The creator can decide under what conditions they will allow others to use their material. For instance, a teacher can agree that the material they have created can be used by colleagues within the same educational institution but not by others. They can also decide whether they want to share their material with a Creative Commons licence.
The name of the creator must be given when the work is used. In practice, this means that the teacher’s name must be included when the material they have created is used.
Material that you have created entirely on your own can be copied and shared by you without restrictions. If someone else has contributed to the creation of the material, you will also need their permission to copy it. If you have used the works of others in your resources, such as images or articles, permission is required to copy and share them.
When a teacher uses works created by other individuals as part of their own material, such as images or articles, permission is often required. It is permitted to use works without permission when it involves quotations, i.e., using a part of another work in your own work to illustrate the topic being discussed.
The 2019 Copyright Act allows for any online material to which the teacher or educational establishment has legitimate access, including images, to be copied for the purpose of illustration for education, provided its creator is given credit and that the copying is for a single course of study. Any material created in this way cannot be shared with others or broadcast on the internet. For schools, colleges and universities, permission to do so is granted under ICLA’s collective educational licences.
In the case of material available online, the rightsholder may have permitted its use through an open licence, such as one of the Creative Commons licences. Such material can be used in accordance with the licence terms. At the same time, be aware that any material that infringes copyright cannot be legitimately used, so if another creator’s work has been unlawfully uploaded onto the internet it is not legal to use it further.
When using works created by others, the name of the creator must be mentioned, and a proper source reference must be provided. For example, when using a photograph, you should mention the photographer’s name, or when using a copied newspaper article, include the newspaper’s name, publication date, and the name of the creator of the article.
Copyright protection for lectures and lecturers
In general, a copyright holder has exclusive rights to a work, including an oral presentation, as long as it is sufficiently original and independent. Therefore, to record a teacher giving a lecture, you need their permission. In addition, any further use, such as use of a recorded presentation in permanent educational models, or distance or web-based lectures, requires permission from the copyright holder, i.e., the teacher.
Can a teacher copy mathematical exercises and their answers from a workbook and distribute them to students as photocopies or on an electronic learning platform?
Teachers can copy or scan pages from a workbook under the ICLA Education Licence. The licence provides blanket permission to copy and reuse extracts of up to 5% or one chapter or article from books, journals, magazines and newspapers, so that teachers can distribute copies to their students.
Be aware also that some workbooks are sold to educational institutions with a ‘copying licence’ included. In this case the publisher assumes the workbook will be copied and that is taken into consideration when the workbook is priced.
If the teacher also wants to modify the exercises in a workbook, can they do so without permission?
If an individual exercise or exercise description does not exceed the copying limit under the ICLA licence, it can be freely modified. Exercises that exceed this limit may not be modified without the permission of the copyright holder.
Can a teacher scan technical drawings or other illustrations from a textbook and add them to their own PowerPoint presentation?
If the school or college has an ICLA Education Licence, a teacher can scan images from a textbook or other published source and add them to their own teaching materials for use in class for a specific course of study. The teacher must give credit to the source of the drawings and cannot share the course material that includes those drawings beyond the specific course of study.
Be aware that some technical drawings do not meet the ‘originality threshold’ and therefore are not protected by copyright.
Irish Copyright Licensing Agency CLG
info@icla.ie