In light of the recent Ed Sheeran’s recent success in court defending himself against a spurious copyright claim, Neil takes a look at Intellectual Property and Copyright in the UK and how it applies to tutoring in terms of teaching tools and materials. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Tutors get to add their flavour and slant to the materials they teach. These materials are a tangible asset to you and your business, your Intellectual Property.  
• Copyright is an automatic legal basis that says that if you create it, it belongs to you.
• It is a good idea to put ‘Copyright of’ and your name and the year on all the materials that you produce for your teaching.
• Marking yourself as creator solidifies your image as an expert.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Unless you’re content to just play through standard texts and, in my opinion, go through the motions you’ll doubtless be creating your own teaching materials; examples, explanations, diagrams, exercises, stories, music and so on.’

‘Let’s say you write an explanation of a concept in your own words.  And, hey presto, that particular form of words is yours and yours alone.’

‘If they do (nick your stuff) you’ll have records and timestamps all over the metadata of anything that you’ve created on a computer.’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

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