Copyright and sharing resources online

Overview

It is extremely easy to create, share and reuse content online but the laws regarding copyright and other intellectual property rights still apply.

There are many websites that provide notes and course materials to support students in their studies. Online learning platforms like Course Hero, Chegg and Studocu include resources uploaded from all over the world. This content can be in the format of student notes, full copies of lecture hand outs and slides, exam papers, e-resources and library books. Unfortunately, many of these resources are in breach of copyright on UWE Bristol teaching materials or the copyright of content licensed by UWE Bristol for the use of its students.

Before you upload anything online, consider whether sharing the content is the right thing to do. Consider how you would feel if your own work was shared without your permission. 

Sharing your lecture notes

If you have made your own notes in a lecture, you are free to distribute them as you want provided that these notes are not exact copies of course materials and lectures. 

When you upload your own content to an online learning platform, you don't lose your copyright. However by doing so, you agree to license your content and for it to be hosted and used in specific ways as set out in the terms of service of that site.

Remember that, once material has been shared online, the process to remove it can be bureaucratic and time consuming.

Resources that cannot be shared

At the start of each year of your studies, you sign and agree to terms of use for UWE Bristol teaching materials. Sharing UWE Bristol copyrighted materials or licensed content online infringes upon this agreement and could result in action under the Student Conduct Policy (PDF).

When you upload material to an online learning platform you will be asked to confirm that you have permission to do this, including permission for any third-party content (for example material from books, journals, e-resources and similar content).

You should not upload anything that you do not own the rights to, including:

• copies or transcripts of UWE Bristol teaching materials, such as slides and exam papers
• content from UWE Bristol library resources.

Copyright and Generative AI

Your programme of study will provide you with specific guidance to follow about the use of AI tools for a specific piece work.

When you access content that UWE Bristol licenses for staff and students use, you will may see the following message and we ask that you respect the wishes of our suppliers:

‘Content from this database should not be used in Artificial Intelligence applications.’

There is discussion about how copyright exceptions interact with AI tools, especially section 29A of the Copyright Design and Patents Act that covers Computational Analysis. The JISC view, on behalf of the UK HE sector, is that, if you have lawful access to licences, content copies made to carry out computational analysis for the purpose of non-commercial research would be permissible as long as those copies are not shared with unauthorised users.

Not sharing with unauthorised users means that you should only use the Microsoft Copilot chatbot via your UWE Bristol login. Doing this protects the data, and information within a chat only exists for the duration of the chat. The easiest way to tell if you are using the correct version of Copilot is the presence of a green shield ‘protected icon’.