Other resources

Newspapers

The University has a licence with the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA).

The NLA media access licence covers access to newspapers and magazines as well as giving permission to establishments who hold a license to make paper and digital copies of newspaper, magazine and news website content.

You can find out more information about the NLA license from the NLA Media Access website. 

It allows copying and scanning of hard copy versions of national and international newspapers in the NLA repertoire. 

We recommend you use reading lists to share resources with your students. You can find more information about how to request new materials, create and update your reading lists and best practice for reading lists. 

For access to the different types of newspapers that are in our collection, please have a look at our database page. 

Online material

Material found online, though it is "freely available" does not mean that it is free of copyright or other IP protections like trademarks. 

There are no specific rules on how much you can legally copy from a website, so make sure you use the fair dealing principle when doing so. Images found on online content, are not free to use and the copyright holder might not be the website owner, they might have either commissioned the images or requested permission from the copyright holders. 

Make sure you acknowledge and cite online sources accordingly. For this purpose, please use Cite Them Right. 

Maps

Use of maps to convey geographical information in education and academic work is a common occurance. However, licence terms and copyright considerations still need to be followed. 

Google Maps

The following uses are allowed:

• You can print maps for non-commercial or personal use, but please make sure you are mindful of fair dealing and you attribute the maps accordingly (Map data © 2024 Google);
• You can use maps inside books and textbooks (up to 5k copies) and periodicals or other scholarly communication;
• You can apply your own annotations to the copies that you have made, but you can't make changes to the web colours or remove the attribution;
• Embedding maps into digital media, such as websites.

Not permitted are:

• any type of commercial use;
• used as the core part of printed navigational material;
• primary or creative use in printed promotional or advertising materials.

Google Earth

Google Earth or Earth Studio can be used for purposes such as research, education, film and non-profit use without needing permission.

The following is permitted:

• You can print maps for non-commercial or personal use, but please make sure you are mindful of fair dealing and you attribute the maps accordingly;
• You can use maps inside books and textbooks (up to 5k copies) and periodicals or other scholarly communication.

You cannot use Google Earth for commercial or promotional purposes. You may not use output, or use third party tools to capture output, from Google Earth, Google Earth Pro, or Earth Studio to reconstruct 3D models or create similar content, or to create other content, products, or services that may violate Goggle's Terms of Service.

Street View

You cannot print Street View imagery for any purpose. Other restrictions apply when using Street View such as:

• creating data or digitising or tracing information from the imagery;
• using applications to extract and analyse information from Street View imagery;
• making an offline copy of Street View imagery;
• merging or stitching together multiple Street View imagery. 

For more information on Google Maps and other Google services, please read Google's re-use guidelines. 

Ordnance Survey

Digimap is an online map and data delivery service, available by subscription to UK Higher and Further Education establishments. Operated by EDINA at the University of Edinburgh, Digimap offers a number of data collections, including Ordnance Survey, historical, geological, LiDAR and marine maps and spatial data.  

Students and staff can use Digimap for the following purposes: 

• Educational purposes, such as lecturing and academic work (including online).
• Reproduction of small extracts of maps in theses (although if the thesis is to be published under a Creative Commons licence it will be necessary to contact Digimap to check permissions).
• Reproduction of small extracts of maps in journal articles.
• Reproduction of small extracts of maps in books to be published - see the Digimap Licence FAQs (number 17).
• Including maps in conference presentations and public lectures (although you mustn't give any material to attendees).
• Data from the Ordnance Survey collection may be used for "limited administrative use". This is defined as "fair and reasonable use to show the location and extent of a Place of Education, any of their other fixed assets, and/or the location of, and directions to, an event organised by it."

All of the maps and data available are provided by public or private sector organisations. Digimap Collections do not own any maps or data - they provide their services so that UK educational institutions can easily access data for teaching, learning and research. 

The maps and data available in Digimap Collections are typically for EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY.  Some collections provide data that is available under open data licences.  

When you reproduce maps:

• They must be acknowledged as follows: “© Crown copyright and database rights “year” Ordnance Survey (100025252)”, where “year” is the current year (100025252 is the licence number for the Ordnance Survey Education Services Providers).
• In general they should not be georeferenced (for further information look at the Digimap Terms and Conditions).

For more information, please visit the Digimap website.  

The law does not allow copying of a substantial part of artistic work, which includes maps. Meaning that a map which is still under copyright cannot be fully copied, for any purpose, only a part of the map can be used. For more information on using the Digimap service and OS maps, please contact the Copyright and Licensing Manager. 

Software

When you create something original, like a story, poem, song, or piece of art, copyright law protects your work. This means that others cannot copy or use your work without your permission.

Computer software is also considered a literary work, but this can be confusing because software is not like a book or a painting. It is more like a set of instructions that a computer follows.

Copyright law allows you to use a small portion of someone else's work without asking for permission. This is called fair dealing. However, this may not work well for software, because you often need to use a large portion of it, or even all of it, in order for it to work properly.

Re-use of code

Reusing software can be a great way to save time and resources. It can also make projects possible that would otherwise be too difficult or time-consuming for a student. If you reuse code from a reputable source, it is likely to be of higher quality and have fewer bugs than code you write yourself.

However, it is important to note that you are responsible for making sure that the reused software works correctly in your own project. You should also be aware of the copyright restrictions on the software you are reusing. Many software licenses allow you to reuse the code, but there may be conditions attached. For example, you may need to give credit to the original author or make your own code available under the same license.

Software licence

A typical software licence grants the licensee, typically an end-user, permission to use one or more copies of software in ways where such a use would otherwise potentially constitute copyright infringement of the software owner's exclusive rights under copyright.

There are various forms of software licences, such as: 

• Proprietary License: a restrictive license which grants the user a limited amount of rights, like installing and using the software on their device but any modifications, redistributions, or reverse engineering are not permitted without the explicit permission of the copyright owner(s). 
• Open Source License: these licenses provide users with the freedom to view, modify and distribute the source code of the software. Examples of such licenses are the GNU General Public License and the MIT license. 
• Permissive License: these types of licenses allow users a significant amount of freedom in using, modifying, and distributing the software. These licenses have very few restrictions and are often used for their ease. Permissive licenses examples include among others Apache license and Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). 
• Commercial Licenses: these are proprietary licenses which require procurement by users for commercial use. Terms and conditions vary, depending on the license, however they do restrict, modification, redistribution and might require the purchase of additional licenses to cover multiple devices. 

For more information about software and licensing, have a look at the Citizenside.com article. 

Acknowledging use of code

Most licenses require that you give credit to the original authors of the code. This means that you should include their names in your work, even if the license allows you to modify the code. You should also indicate if you have made any changes to the code.

This is important because it helps to protect the rights of the original authors. It also helps to ensure that your work is accurate and complete.

For more information on citation, please use Cite Them Right.