The borrowed table
An analyst needs bus times for a report. She finds a neat table on a website and pastes it into her client's report. A month later the website owner sends a letter.
The table was not hers to copy. Data work uses other people's creations all the time, so analysts need to know the rules.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Personal data | Information about a living person who can be identified. | |
| Intellectual property rights | The legal rights over things that people create with their minds. | a report, a song, a program |
| Copyright | The right to decide who may copy, share or change a piece of work. | |
| Licence | Permission to use work, with rules about how. | |
| Ownership | Who holds the rights over a piece of work or a dataset. | |
| Attribution | Saying who made something and where it came from. | |
| Open licence | A licence that lets anyone use the work if they follow simple rules. | |
| Dataset | A collection of data about one topic. | |
| Commercial use | Using something to make money. |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can explain copyright, licensing and ownership, and check whether I may use a dataset.
Starter: last lesson
Have a go
Starter: last lesson
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Copyright comes free
In the UK, copyright starts the moment somebody creates a piece of work. Nobody has to apply for it. For written work it usually lasts for the author's life and 70 years more.
It covers reports, charts, program code, photos and the wording of survey questions. A single fact, such as "the bus leaves at 8:15", is not owned. A whole table built with effort can be.
What is covered in data work
| Item | Protected by copyright? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A report you wrote | Yes | It is your own writing |
| Program code in a notebook | Yes | Code counts as writing |
| One fact, such as a date | No | A fact is not a creation |
| A large table made with effort | Often yes | The choice and layout is the work |
| A copied chart from a website | Yes | It belongs to its maker |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Check: copyright
Have a go
Check: copyright
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.