Interest Groups Online Copyright and GDPR
1. Copyright
All group leaders should be wary of copyright infringement and exercise caution when using the work of others, please be vigilant and advise your group members on how to avoid breaches of copyright.
Copyright protects the following categories of works:
- Literary works, (including letters, reports, journals etc.)
- Dramatic works (including choreography, film scripts, etc.).
- Musical works
- Databases
- Artistic works (including photographs, sculptures, maps etc.)
- Sound recordings and films.
- The typographical layout of a published edition of a literary, dramatic or musical work. So, the content of a recently published edition of a work written many years ago could be out of copyright, but the 'typographical arrangement' would not.
Copyright will protect the outputs of many groups e.g. craft-based groups, photography, creative writing groups etc. However, other groups will want to use the works of others for study. There are 4 circumstances in which the work owned by others can be used:
- Copyright in the work has expired, meaning that the work has entered the public domain and can be freely used or exploited by anyone.
- The use falls under one of the copyright exceptions under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 as amended. Specifically the ‘fair dealing’ exemption will apply to many groups. Read more below.
- The copyright holder has given permission for the use or exploitation of the work e.g. has responded to you directly giving permission or has already given a general approval via a public copyright licence such as a Creative Commons licence (with or without associated conditions).
- The relevant work and use is covered by a licensing scheme that the u3a and/or the Third Age Trust and/or the relevant venue has subscribed to.
‘Fair Dealing’ The UK government website explains that works can be used for private study and research, without breaching copyright. This will allow most u3a groups to share copyrighted materials within a private group setting in order to review and discuss the work for learning purposes, the artist/author/owner of the work should be fully credited and the works should not be shared more widely.
Read more about UK copyright law and also u3a’s advice on using the work of others.
2. Data Protection
Beacon allows group leaders to have access to the personal data of their group members via Beacon. Group organisers must ensure that they are compliant with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) in dealing with this data. The information should only be used to communicate with members about group activities and not for personal reasons unless permission is granted.
Group leaders should only contact their members via email using Beacon, and not using personal email clients such as gmail or outlook. The only exception to this rule is when a group does not operate via zoom, but operates via email communication, where explicit written permission has been provided.
Before taking a screenshot of a meeting on zoom which may be made public, everyone who will be in the screenshot should be asked if they agree to this. Anyone who does not agree should be asked to turn off their camera. If this is not possible, the photograph should not be taken or published. The same applies to recording meetings.
For more details please read the Third Age Trust’s privacy policy.
3. Recording a zoom meeting
It is possible to make a recording of part or all of a zoom meeting. This has both GDPR and copyright implications which should be considered carefully before making a recording, and before a recording is distributed outside the group to group members or otherwise.
If the meeting is to be recorded, everyone member who will appear or be heard in the recording must give their written permission. They should be told how and with whom the recording will be shared and used afterwards.
If you do not have this permission from all members, please refrain from recording or sharing a recording of your meetings.
If you have a speaker at your meeting, you could gain their written permission and only record when they are presenting. If you do so, ensure that you are on ‘Speaker View’ on zoom, so that no other members are recorded. If possible on your zoom account, spotlight the presenter for the recording.
All material shared in any recorded zoom session should be copyright free. If any copyrighted material is used during the zoom meeting, this must not be included in the recording due to the risk of it being shared more widely, no longer falling because it could be shared more widely outside the closed group of members and would no longer fall under the “fair dealing” rule. This could incur a fine for the speaker or for IGO.
4. Contact
Please use the following details to contact the IGO Team: