The hidden copyright dangers in your VLE and how to fix them
If you work in AV or manage your institution’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), there’s a quiet problem you’ve probably spotted—and maybe even struggled to fix.
It’s the danger of courses that aren’t copyright-compliant on your institution’s VLE.
Not the obvious stuff—like uploading an entire film or textbook PDF—but the everyday, creeping misuse of clips, images, and recordings across courses and departments.
Your faculty colleagues want to create the best learning experiences for your students. But…
- A YouTube clip is embedded without considering licensing.
- Lecture recordings contain broadcast footage.
- “Fair dealing” is misunderstood (or completely unknown).
- Old modules are reused despite long-forgotten permission issues.
Sound familiar?
You’re not alone. We’ve spoken to AV teams and learning technologists across the UK, and there’s a pattern.
There’s a growing pressure on universities to be agile, digital-first, and resource-rich. But that pressure has outpaced the copyright literacy of many staff and students.
What does the data say?
Research backs this up and continues to show widespread uncertainty among educators when it comes to copyright.
The foundational UK Copyright Literacy Survey revealed that over 70% of respondents felt unsure what they were legally allowed to use in teaching materials, and in 2023, the authors of the original survey launched a new Copyright Anxiety Study, with early findings suggesting that copyright anxiety is getting worse, not better.
A cross-European study, Zooming in on Education, also demonstrated that educators in the UK, Italy, and the Netherlands continue to demonstrate low awareness of copyright rules—particularly in the context of digital platforms and online learning.
And with quality assurance bodies flagging intellectual property and copyright handling as a concern in some institutional audits—especially relating to open educational resources and VLE uploads—this concern is founded.
One university had to pull an entire module offline mid-course after using unlicensed YouTube clips because no one was quite sure how the ERA licence worked. Don’t let that be your inbox.
Why this matters
Your institution is likely very passionate about delivering:
- Rich, multimedia learning experiences that are engaging and that today’s students expect.
- Inclusive, remote-friendly learning that students can do anytime, anywhere.
- A fair experience for neurodiverse learners with diverse formats, not just text.
But in their pursuit to deliver this, it’s likely they are breaching copyright law in their use of content. It’s crucial to de-risk your VLE setup from compliance threats.
Copyright literacy is no longer a “nice to have”. It’s critical infrastructure.
And yet, many teams are left playing catch-up: retrofitting guidance, stripping out clips, and firefighting takedown requests.
5 quick things you can do right now
Here are five small steps AV and VLE teams can take today to start closing the compliance gap:
- Create a “green list”: compile a quick-reference list or repository of pre-cleared or properly licensed resources for staff to use in teaching. For example, our Box of Broadcasts provides millions of copyright-cleared film, television and radio programmes. Make sure all staff are aware of this and can access it; for example, include it in onboarding processes and host it on your intranet.
- Add short copyright prompts: create prompts and pop-ups to your VLE upload workflows, even a simple “Do you have permission to use this clip?” The query can make people stop and think twice before sharing something that breaches copyright law.
- Host a copyright ‘ask me anything’ hour: consider hosting a session once a term so that any staff member can come and ask their burning questions. Turn frequently asked questions into a downloadable FAQ document and share that with faculty members as well.
- Audit a single course: pick one high-traffic course on your VLE and check it for copyright red flags. Make a list of all breaches. Then work with the relevant staff members to get this course copyright complaint and use it to model good practice. You can also look at the breaches and use that to inform your strategy going forward, for example, training up staff and creating simple checklists for people to use before creating and publishing courses.
- Share myth-busting tips: create informal training opportunities by sharing myths in staff newsletters or even on flyers in recreational areas (e.g., “Using YouTube is not always legal, even if it’s public”).
You don’t need to overhaul everything at once. But a few nudges in the right places go a long way. And you can create a manageable roadmap to ensure your institution becomes fully compliant.