Copyright compliance policy, guidelines and implementation

Introduction

ISKO UK is the UK Chapter of ISKO, the International Society for Knowledge Organization. We are a not-for-profit scientific/professional association dedicated to promoting the theory and practice of Knowledge Organization through a range of activities, including the hosting of events such as seminars, workshops and conferences where presenters/authors share their knowledge and expertise to the public, either on a digital platform or within a physical venue. Following consent from presenters/authors, the output of these events is normally stored in a media repository and, in some cases, material such as slides and recordings are made available to the public via the ISKO UK website.

We, at ISKO UK, recognise and respect intellectual property rights and are committed to fulfilling our moral and legal obligations with respect to the publishing of copyright-protected works. To that end, we endeavour to ensure that all materials used in our events and published on our website are correctly licensed. We understand that copyrighted material communicated to our audiences requires permission.

Aims of the ISKO UK copyright policy

The aim of this copyright compliance policy is multi-fold:

1. To ensure that presenters/authors are aware of their responsibility of the copyright status of the material used in their presentation and that copyright law applies at the time of use, namely during the delivery of their presentation to the public.

2. To provide members of the Executive Committee and event organisers a uniform approach to addressing copyright issues by implementing practical advice and procedures set out in this policy. However, this policy is not a substitute for legal advice. Proper legal advice should be obtained whenever necessary.

3. To protect ISKO UK from eventual copyright infringement claims and to ensure that the publication of event outputs on our website has been authorised by presenters/authors.

4. To guarantee presenters/authors that they retain the copyright of their intellectual property associated with their presentation(s).

Copyright law in brief

Our policy is based on the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (Chapter 2 and 3). The Act gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films and typographical arrangement of published editions, the exclusive right to re-use their work as they see fit, either by:

• reproducing their work in any material form;
• communicating it to the public by any means (e.g. during delivery of the presentation and via an electronic retrieval system);
• making adaptions.

Copyright protection starts as soon as a work is created. The length of copyright varies according to the nature of the work, namely 70 years after the death of the author for written, dramatic, musical and artistic work; sound and music recording and films.

Copyright exception is a statutory provision that permits a particular type of use of a copyright work. Examples are the exceptions for:

• non-commercial research and private study
• criticism, review, quotation and reporting current events
• teaching (in the context of an educational organisation)
• parody, caricature and pastiche

In the event that such exceptions would apply to ISKO UK, we still need to err on the side of caution by ensuring that:

• Presenters can justify their use of material to support their argument/proposal/hypothesis and not just for decorative purposes;
• The use of the material does not impact the market value of the original work;
• No more than is required is used for a specific purpose.

Guidelines on how to avoid copyright infringements

This section aims to provide guidelines to presenters/authors who intend to use images, text, video and/or music in their presentation. Admittedly, the focus will be on the use of images, as these constitute the main risk of copyright infringement in the context of ISKO UK events.

 The Internet provides a plethora of advice and guidelines such as those published by the University of Reading and the University of York. All guidelines emphasise the need to:

•  Check whether images are correctly licensed, for instance by looking for images rights metadata in Google;
•   Seek express written permission from the creators or the agency that represent them.

If the copyright status of an image is uncertain and if it proves difficult to obtain permission, we can   recommend to:

• Use commercial stock photo agencies such as Shutterstock, iphoto and photofolio;
• Consult the vast collections of licensed images under the Creative Common (CC) licence.

Implementation of ISKO UK copyright compliance policy

The designated event organiser is responsible for implementing the ISKO UK copyright compliance policy at each stage of the following sequence of actions.

1. Once presenters/authors have agreed to contribute to our events, event organisers must inform them of our copyright compliance policy and accompanying guidelines on how to avoid copyright infringement.

2. In advance of the event presenters/authors are required to endorse an indemnification clause that holds them responsible for securing copyright to any materials they incorporate in their presentation, and that they are liable in the event of copyright infringement.

I [name] hereby affirm that I am in possession of all rights to the photographic material and images used in my presentation "[Title of presentation]" given on [date]. I confirm that the photographic material and images are licensed for this use or are free of third-party rights and I indemnify ISKO UK against any actions that may be taken for breach of copyright in respect of this presentation.

When appropriate, event organisers must obtain from presenters the permission to publish their presentation and related digital material on the ISKO UK website via the statement below.

I grant/do not grant ISKO UK a licence to store and display all digital files relating to this presentation via the ISKO UK website, while retaining copyright over my intellectual property.

4. In order to guarantee authenticity of endorsement, presenters/authors should return the statements using their personal/professional email address to the Secretary at secretary@iskouk.org who will store them securely online and offline.

Disclaimer from ISKO UK relating to published output

In addition to the above, we should emphasise via a disclaimer published on the event page of the ISKO UK website that ISKO UK is not responsible for the content of the recordings, and any views expressed in them are those of the presenters or other contributors and not necessarily those of ISKO UK.

Queries regarding this policy should be directed to Sylvie Davies, ISKO UK Secretary at secretary@iskouk.org

June 2021