Copyright

When data are created, it is important to determine who owns it. It could be a researcher, the funding institution, another entity involved in its creation, or joint ownership between multiple parties involved in the creation, either individual or at an institution level.

Deciding ownership is complex and varies by country, institution, type of creator (e.g. employee, student), nature of the work, use of institutional resources or funding, and whether it was created individually or collaboratively. For example, universities often claim ownership of data created by academic staff during employment or using significant institutional resources, though this varies by country. Generally, students who are not university employees keep IP rights to their work unless circumstances involve sponsorship, research collaborations, or commercial prospects, where ownership may be shared or assigned to the university or third parties.

Research funders may also assert claims, particularly for commercially viable outputs. For projects with commercial collaborators, joint IP rights should be addressed through legal agreements.

It is always advisable that researchers clarify ownership of primary and secondary data before starting their research; this is to ensure proper publication and access rights. These rights need to be considered when creating, using and sharing data.

Researchers can:

1. Check national IP Laws as it often depends on the laws of the country where the work is created.
2. Review University or Research Institution Policies if affiliated with a university or public research institution (PRI).
3. Look at Contractual Agreements between researchers, universities/PRIs, and external sponsors.
4. Seek Legal Advice if it gets complicated, e.g. when several collaborators are involved nationally or internationally.

The author(s) or creator(s) of a work automatically own(s) copyright and this can be assumed as soon as the work exists in a recorded form. However, in many cases, copyright may instead be held by the researcher’s institution depending on employment contracts, institutional policies, or the terms of the research funding. In some cases, funders or collaborating organisations may also retain rights. In practice, many academic institutions assign copyright in research materials and publications to the researchers. It is always advisable for researchers to check their contracts and consult with their Research Offices.

For copyright to apply, the work must be original and fixed in a material form (written or recorded); there is no copyright in ideas or unrecorded speech.

For collaborative research or derived data, copyright is held by all the investigators or institutions involved.

In the case of interview data, copyright can be complex. The researcher (or their institution) will typically hold copyright over the recording and transcription. However, interviewees may retain copyright over their spoken contributions, particularly where their responses are original or expressive in nature. For this reason, it is essential that participant consent forms and information sheets clearly outline the intended uses of interview data, and specify any rights being waived or granted for research, sharing, or publication purposes. Researchers are advised to consult with members of Ethics Committees and Research Offices, and where appropriate seek legal counsel.

Copyright can be transferred by the owner but only in writing by means of a transfer document called an assignment.

If secondary users wish to reproduce data in full or substantial part, they must obtain copyright clearance from the rights holder(s) unless the content is available under an Open Licence or subject to exemptions.

The duration of copyright depends on the type of work. The table below is highly simplified.

Copyright supports creators by ensuring they receive fair compensation for their work, which encourages more creativity and ensures proper recognition. However, copyright law also includes limitations and exceptions, allowing for certain uses without the creator’s permission. Many countries allow the adaptation of copyrighted books for people with visual impairments or other disabilities, making them more accessible. For example, UK copyright law permits the creation of accessible format copies (such as Braille or subtitled versions) for disabled individuals without breaching copyright, supported by the Marrakesh Treaty.

In the same way, researchers and students are allowed to copy limited portions of copyrighted works (such as books, plays, music, and photos) for non-commercial research or personal study. This exemption is known as “Fair dealing” which is a legal term used to determine whether the use of copyrighted material is lawful or infringes on copyright. There is no fixed definition of fair dealing—it depends on the specific situation and context. Essentially, fair dealing means that using a copyrighted work under certain exceptions must be both reasonable and justifiable.

This only applies to literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, not to films or recordings. An acknowledgement should give credit to the data source used, the data distributor and the copyright holder.

Fair dealing use could be assessed by asking how a fair-minded and honest person would handle the work. Key factors include:

1. Market Impact: If the use substitutes the original work and causes revenue loss, it is likely to be unfair.
2. Amount Used: The part taken should be reasonable and necessary, typically involving only part of the work.

The importance of these factors depends on the specific case and type of use.

While exceptions exist under the concept of fair dealing, which permits the use of copyrighted material for non-commercial teaching or research, private study, criticism, or review without infringing copyright—provided that the original source and author are properly acknowledged—caution must be exercised in the context of data sharing. In the United Kingdom, such exceptions are not typically recognised by responsible data repositories, and the sharing of data or information generally requires explicit copyright permission.

Copyright laws vary by country, but global harmonisation has been achieved through treaties like the Berne Convention (1886), administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). A key principle of the Berne Convention is ‘national treatment’, requiring member countries to protect works from other countries from infringement as they would their own. The treaty sets minimum standards for aspects like types of protected works, duration, and exceptions.

There is a detailed overview of copyright legislation in different European countries in the CESSDA Data Management Expert Guide Diversity in copyright – Data Management Expert Guide.

When copyright expires, a work enters the public domain and can be used freely. To determine if a work is in the public domain, consider who created it and when they died—if it has been over 70 years since the creator’s death, the work is likely public domain. However, there are key considerations:

1. Public domain status varies by country.
2. Reproductions or recordings of public domain works can still have their own copyright.
3. Adaptations of public domain works, such as modern films or adaptations, are protected by copyright and require permission to use.

Further guidance Information in the public domain | ICO.

If you use the orphan work for non-commercial purposes, like one of the many uses considered fair use (e.g. criticism, parody, news reporting, classroom teaching, scholarship, or research), you may fall within the fair use. However, when sharing research data, all rights holders must be identified, and copyright permissions obtained. If one or more rights holders cannot be found, the work is classified as an ‘orphan work’. Generally, orphan works cannot be reproduced without permission, except in specific circumstances. To use an orphan work, a ‘diligent search’ must be conducted to locate the rights holders, consulting appropriate sources for the type of work. This process, which varies slightly by country, should be completed before using the work and is often time-consuming.

Detailed guidance on Orphan works diligent search guidance – GOV.UK.

Social media platforms generate a vast amount of data from user posts, comments, likes, photos, videos, and interactions, offering valuable insights into user behaviour, preferences, and trends. Accessing social media data for research is best done through application programming interfaces (APIs), which provide a direct and authentic connection to platform data.

These APIs, offered by social media platforms or their authorized resellers, deliver machine-readable data, enabling researchers to process large datasets quickly and efficiently in real time and detect patterns at scale. APIs act as a bridge between the platform and the user and define how data can be accessed and used, including technical guidelines and any rules or restrictions.

Social media data are a powerful tool for both commercial and academic use. The terms of use for major social media platforms are similar when it comes to IP rights. Just like books or journals, the content you post on these platforms is protected by copyright.

By agreeing to the platform’s terms and conditions when creating an account, you grant the site a licence to use your content in various ways. This can include allowing researchers to access your data for academic purposes. Therefore, if researchers are using social media data, they must follow the platform’s terms and conditions, as well as the guidelines set by API developers.

For example, X allows researchers to access tweets via its public API. However, challenges arise when researchers attempt to publish or archive data for future use. X’s policy restricts sharing or storing collected data, although it does allow archiving tweet IDs (the unique numbers for each tweet) and user IDs. This enables researchers to recreate datasets in the future, but only if X continues to provide access to historical data. X also imposes restrictions on how tweets can be published. For example, tweets must be quoted in their original form without modifications, which may pose privacy concerns, as anonymisation is not allowed. Therefore, it is essential to check the terms and conditions associated with the platform when it comes to publishing the data for future use.

For further guidance and example case studies please visit our copyright scenarios webpage.