Lecture given at City University of London for Ernesto Priego as part of a publishing course

1. Authority, Property, Piracy:
From Copyright to the Commons
Jane Secker @jsecker
With thanks to Chris Morrison @cbowiemorrison
City, University of London, 24h February 2017
www.copyrightliteracy.org @UKCopyrightLit #INM380

3. Some definitions
Copyright: Exclusive rights of the author in a creative work. Protects the
expression of an idea not an idea.
Copyright exceptions: these are circumstances when works can be
used without seeking the copyright holder’s permission.
Licence: a legal agreement that sets out the terms under which you
are allowed to use someone else’s intellectual property.
Public domain: these are works that are free from copyright
restrictions (e.g. it has expired) and are therefore available to use.
Creative Commons: If a work is distributed under a Creative Commons
licence, you can re-use it for free under the conditions set by the licence.

4. Statute of Anne 1709
“An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the
Authors or Purchasers of Copies, during the Times therein mentioned"

5. John Locke
1632-1704
Labour
theory
“Every man has a property in his own person -
the labour of his body, and the work of his
hands”

6. “That the sweat of a man's brows,
and the exsudations of a man's
brains, are as much a man's own
property as the breeches upon his
backside”
Laurence Sterne - The Life and
Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
Gentleman. (1759)

7. “One particularly evocative
example is the language of
copyright as intellectual
property right, and of
intellectual property right as
human right, a powerful
rhetoric, with little historical
or theoretical credibility, but
which nonetheless threatens
to dominate copyright
discourse and drive
contemporary copyright
policy.”
Deazley (2006) p.8

8. The Intellectual Commons
From Deazley, R (2006) Rethinking Copyright, p.123

9. Sharing in the digital age

10. BROKEN
?

13. ACTIVISM
or PIRACY?

14. Creative Commons
Cultural Commons

15. LEARNING

16. Teaching copyright in
context

17. Copyrightliteracy.org

18. Copyright literacy is….
“the range of knowledge, skills and behaviours
that individuals require when working with
copyright content in the digital age”.
(Morrison and Secker 2015)
They recognise the dual nature of copyright
literacy where librarians develop their own
copyright knowledge but are also able to teach
and support others.

19. The survey said…...
• 57% of UK librarians moderately or extremely
confident about copyright matters
• 76% think having a copyright policy is
important
• Only 63% have a copyright policy
• 64% of institutions had a copyright officer
(higher in HE)

20. Copyright as an Experience
Category 1:
Copyright is seen as
a problem and
avoided
Category 2:
Copyright is seen as
complicated and
passed on to
specialists
Category 3:
Copyright is seen as
a knowable entity
requiring coherent
messages
Category 4:
Copyright is an
opportunity for
negotiation,
collaboration and
co-construction of
understanding
©
©

21. The role of librarians
As copyright
advisors
As copyright
educators
All part of
information
literacy

22. “If I have seen
further, it is by
standing on the
shoulders of
giants.”
Sir Isaac
Newton, 1676

23. Further reading
Ashton, K. (2015) How to Fly a Horse: the secret history of creation,
invention and discovery. Doubleday books.
Deazley, R (2006) Rethinking Copyright: history, theory, language.
Edward Elgar: London.
Morrison, C and Secker J. (2015) Copyright Literacy in the UK: a
survey of librarians and other cultural heritage sector
professionals. Library and Information Research. 39 (121)
http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir/article/view/675
Secker, J and Morrison, C. (2016) Copyright and E-learning: a guide
for practitioners. Facet publishing: London. Chapter 6: Copyright
education and training available online.
Soetendorp, R and Meletti, B (2016) Exceptions for education.
Copyrightuser.org. Available online.
Stern, Laurence (1759)The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
Gentleman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Opinions_of_Tristram_S
handy,_Gentleman
Tehranian, J (2011) Infringement Nation: copyright 2.0 and you.
Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Todorova, T., Trencheva, T., Kurbanoğlu, S., Dogan G., & Horvat, A.
(2014) A Multinational Study on Copyright Literacy Competencies
of LIS Professionals. Presentation given at 2nd European
Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL) held in Dubrovnik.
October 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2015 from
http://ecil2014.ilconf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Todorova.pdf
@UKCopyrightLit Copyrightliteracy.org

24. Image credits
Slide 1: Photo from Unsplash.com CC-0
Slide 2: Photo by Jane Secker CC-BY-SA
Slide 4: Queen Anne / Statute of Anne from Wikipedia CC-BY
Slide 5: John Locke from Wikipedia CC-BY
Slide 8: © Ronan Deazley used with permission
Slide 9: Summer Peach Cake by William Andrus https://flic.kr/p/ajEydF
Slide 10: 3D Broken Copyright by Chris Potter https://flic.kr/p/ogWUh1 CC-BY
Slide 11: Tattoo by Ivan Lanin CC-BY-SA https://flic.kr/p/4vXiA9 and Kindle by
Andrew CC-BY https://flic.kr/p/8WxLju
Slide 13: EIFL Aaron by Quinn Norton CC-BY https://flic.kr/p/5tVxF9 and Sci-
Hub logo from Wikipedia
Slide 14: Slide 18, 19: Photo from Unsplash.com CC-0
Slide 15: Learning from Wikipedia CC-BY
Slide 17: From copyrightliteracy.org CC-BY
Slide 22: Isaac Newton from Wikipedia CC-BY