Illustration for Instruction and the UK Higher Education Sector: Perceptions of risk and sources of authority

This dissertation reports on an empirical study into the interpretation of illustration for instruction (section 32 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) in UK universities since its amendment in 2014. This amendment sought to stimulate economic growth by providing teachers and educational establishments with greater flexibility when using copyright material, following the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property in 2011. An analysis of the legislative intention of the provision and its potential scope were completed. This was followed by interviews with ten copyright specialists employed in university libraries to explore how the legal provisions had been interpreted and employed. The interview data was analysed using the grounded theory method and a coding frame was produced. Findings were grouped into three themes: ‘interpretation’ which considered how the legislation had been interpreted; ‘practice’ which considered the activities taking place within institutions against the backdrop of the organisational structure and culture; and ‘responsibility’ which considered risk, liability and decision making. The study concludes that despite a strong community approach to addressing copyright issues, interpretation of section 32 is not consistent across the sector, limiting the potential benefits identified by the UK Government. It recommends that further work is carried out within the higher education community to create codes of fair practice which could realise latent flexibility within the law.