Guidance

MOD Crown Copyright News / Editorial Licence

Updated 23 August 2023

About this Licence

The Ministry of Defence has a delegation from The Keeper of Public Records of the National Archives to licence Information subject to copyright owned by the Crown.

The Ministry of Defence may, from time to time, issue new versions of this licence.

This version 1.0 applies from August 2023 until any later version supersedes it.

Using Information under this licence

Use of copyright material originated solely by MOD and expressly made available under this licence (the ‘Information’) indicates Your acceptance of the terms and conditions below.

MOD grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to Use the Information for a limited and specified purpose only, subject to the conditions below.

This licence does not affect Your freedom under fair dealing or fair use, or any other copyright exceptions and limitations.

For any use of the Information not covered by the terms of this licence please contact Defence Intellectual Property Rights at DIPR-Copyright@mod.gov.uk.

For information regarding Imagery, please refer to the Ministry of Defence’s official online imagery facility at https://www.defenceimagery.mod.uk/.

Definitions

In this licence, the terms below have the following meanings:

‘Information’

means information protected by Crown copyright (for example, imagery, literary and artistic works) offered for use under the terms of this licence.

‘MOD’

means The Secretary of State for Defence, a corporation sole of Whitehall, London, SW1A 2HB.

‘Editorial Use’

means Use for the purpose of reporting on persons, places, matters, topics or events in newspapers, magazines, broadcasts, online and Exhibitions illustrating matters that are newsworthy or of a general public interest.

‘Use’

As a verb, means doing any act which is restricted by copyright, whether in the original medium or in any other medium, and includes without limitation distributing, copying, adapting, modifying as may be technically necessary to use it in a different mode or format.

‘You’, ‘Your’

means the natural or legal person, or body of persons corporate or incorporate, acquiring rights under this licence.

‘Online’

means websites, blogs, social media posts.

‘Exhibitions’

means a non-commercial public display of items of a public interest, where the term of this licence  will be that  of the duration of the Exhibition and not “in perpetuity” as stated above.

You are permitted to:

Use the Information for Editorial use only.

You are not permitted to:

exercise any other rights of Use other than that set out above, in particular;

You must not Use the Information to publish any alternative or additional literary or artistic material;

You must not Use the Information in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial, promotional, advertorial, advertising, gambling, betting, gaming or merchandising purposes or for any third party beyond Your Editorial use;

You must not copy, adapt, modify or alter the Information in any way, in particular You must not do so in an attempt to circumvent these restrictions.

You must, where you do any of the above:

acknowledge the source of the Information by clearly including the following statement:

For Imagery only “(Photographers rank and name) © Crown copyright (year of creation/publication)” example: “Sgt Mark Jones © Crown copyright 2023;

UK Ministry of Defence © Crown copyright (year of creation/publication)”;

and, where possible, provide a link to this licence in that statement;

ensure that You DO NOT Use the Information in a way that suggests any official status, association, partnership, or that MOD or the UK Government is associated with or endorses You or Your Use of the Information;

ensure that You do not mislead others or misrepresent the Information or its source;

ensure that Your Use of the Information does not breach any aspect of the United Kingdom Data Protection Regulation (UK-GDPR), Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and all other applicable laws (each as amended or replaced from time to time)

These are important conditions of this licence, and if You fail to comply with them or Use the Information other than as set out above, the rights granted to You under this licence will end automatically.

There is no process to request any alternative use of the Information. There is no procedure to appeal.

MOD can only offer licence terms for the Information it can guarantee to have originated and cannot verify or offer licence terms for Information originating from any other third party, including in particular any other UK Government department.

You should be aware that Information made available under this licence may be presented to the public as a matter of record only. There may not be any intention for it to be available for any type or form of Use by You or any other third party.

Internal MOD staff should refer to DIPR-copyright@mod.gov.uk for any further types of “MOD Purposes” that the Information may, and in particular, may not, be used for. This is not relevant for those who are not employed by the Secretary of State for Defence.

Exemptions

This licence does not cover the use of:

Information that has neither been published nor disclosed under information access legislation (including the Freedom of Information Acts for the UK and Scotland) by or with the consent of the MOD;

Departmental or public sector organisation logos, crests, military insignia and the Royal Arms, except where they form an integral part of a document or dataset or where they are incidentally displayed in images or film footage;

third party rights which MOD has not been authorised to license;

Information subject to other intellectual property rights, including patents, trademarks and design rights;

And identity documents such as the British Passport.

No warranty

The MOD has taken steps to ensure that the Information is free from errors and is accurate. The Information is licensed ‘as is’ and MOD excludes all representations, warranties, obligations, and liabilities in relation to the Information to the maximum extent permitted by law.

MOD is not liable for any errors or omissions in the Information and shall not be liable for any loss, injury or damage of any kind caused by its Use. MOD does not guarantee the continued supply of the Information.

Governing Law

This licence is governed by the laws of England and Wales.

Further Information

For additional information please visit the Defence Imagery website and Ministry of Defence copyright and merchandising

This document is titled:

MOD CROWN COPYRIGHT NEWS /EDITORIAL LICENCE and is © Crown copyright 2023, issued by Defence Intellectual Property Rights as Version 1.0