Copyright held by someone other than yourself is known as third party copyright.
Copyright provides legal protection to an original work, to prevent copying and re-use of that work without permission. When writing a thesis, you will want to quote from a range of sources, to reproduce diagrams, tables or case studies, or adapt existing works. To allow for this activity without infringing copyright, UK copyright law provides several exemptions, where works can be copied or re-used without permission in certain circumstances.
The use must be “fair” and necessary for that purpose.
Exemptions include copying for “quotation” and “criticism and review”.
Further details and help can be found in the Library’s E-theses and Copyright Guidelines.
Where permission has not been obtained, the material should be redacted (removed) from the thesis before online publication.
See FAQs What if I cannot obtain permission to use third party copyright? and How do I redact/remove material from a thesis?
