The Copyright Act provides a series of exemptions which permit the use of copyright material without permission. These include:
(a) Fair Dealing
The Copyright Act permits the limited and fair copying and communication of works. No permission is required or payment made to the copyright owner if the use is one of fair dealing for the purpose of:
- research or study
- criticism or review
- reporting the news
Fair dealing does not apply to works which have technological protection measures (TPMs) applied to them.
See 1.16: Liability of schools and individuals for copyright infringement and remedies
(i) Research or study
A person may copy parts, and in some cases the whole, of a:
- literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work
- sound or television broadcast
- film, video /DVD
- multimedia product
- computer program
- database
for free for the purposes of research or study. In general, students and teachers can rely on this defence where using extracts from copyright material as part of their research or study for a class or particular course of instruction. The person undertaking the study and research must be the person doing the copying.
(a) Factors to be taken into account
There are special factors to be taken into account for literary, musical and dramatic works. In general, copying the following will be considered to be fair dealing:
- whole or part of an article in a periodical
- more than one article in a periodical where they relate to the same subject matter
- a 'reasonable portion' of a published edition of a literary, dramatic or musical work, being 10% of the number of pages in the edition where the edition is more than 10 pages long or up to one chapter where the work is divided into chapters
(b) Copying more than a reasonable portion
In considering copying in other circumstances, the following factors must be taken into consideration:
- the purpose and character of the dealing
- the nature of the work
- the possibility of obtaining the work within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price
- the effect of the dealing upon the potential market for, or value of the work
- in the case where only the part of the work is copied - the amount and substantiality of the part copied in relation to the whole work
- Audio-visual material
The same fair dealing exceptions and factors apply for audio-visual material (sound recordings, films and broadcasts).
(c) Multiple copying for class use
Multiple copying of copyrights works by an educational institution will not be a fair dealing even where the students are studying newsworthy items or engaging in criticism and review. This will be covered by the statutory licence schemes.
See 1.15: Statutory Licence Schemes
(d) External Students
The defence of fair dealing for research or study extends to external students that are enrolled in an educational institution provided that the copying by them is for the purpose of or associated with an approved course of study or research.
(ii) Criticism or review
A student may copy or produce parts of a library, dramatic, musical and artistic work for the purpose of criticism and review, such as where a student is reviewing a book, CD or film for a student newspaper or similar publication.
The source work, the copyright owner and the author (if different from the copyright owner) must be sufficiently acknowledged in the publication.
Sufficient acknowledgment must be made of the source material copyright owner, the author (if different) and the title of the work being copied (if different from the copyright owner).
The same exception applies for audio-visual material (sound recordings, films and broadcasts).
(iii) Reporting the news
A fair dealing may be for reporting the news in the print, radio or television media. The same exception applies for audio-visual material (sound recordings, films and broadcasts).
The term newspaper, magazines or similar periodical includes e-zines and other online publications and also includes school newspapers and magazines.
Sufficient acknowledgment must be made of the copyright owner and the author of the work.
(iv) Fair dealing and unpublished works
Using unpublished works may not be fair under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act.
(v) Notices near copying equipment
Educational institutions and libraries must display certain notices near copying equipment (eg photocopiers, scanners, CD and DVD burners) to avoid liability for authorising infringements by people using their equipment where the fair dealing exceptions do not apply.
(b) Special statutory exceptions
(i) Free educational uses
There are a number of educational use exceptions where no payment is required:
(a) Performance of material in class
Copyright is not infringed by a teacher or student reading or performing a literary, dramatic or musical work in class, where it is done:
- in the course of education and is not for profit; and
- the people in the audience or class are giving or receiving instruction or are directly connected with the place where instruction is given.
(b) Playing sound recordings in class
Copyright is not infringed by a teacher or student playing a sound recording in class, where it is done:
- in the course of education and is not for profit; and
- the people in the audience or class are giving or receiving instruction or are directly connected with the place where instruction is given.
(c) Screening films, videos /DVDs in class
Copyright is not infringed by a teacher or students screening a film, video /DVD in class, where it is done:
- in the course of education and is not for profit
- the people in the audience or class are giving or receiving instruction or are directly connected with the place where instruction is given.
(d) Making a compilation of mainly non-copyright material
Inclusion of short extract or adaptation of a published work in a collection of works made up of mainly non copyright material:
(e) Copying by hand
A teacher or student may copy an artistic, dramatic, musical and literary work for instructional purposes or use in the classroom. This exception applies to copying a work onto a:
- piece of paper
- white pad
- blackboard
- overhead transparency
There are no limits on how much may be copied, adapted, translated or arranged by hand.
Examples of works copied by hand include:
- diagrams or plans
- poems
- musical notation and lyrics
It does not allow subsequent copying by any other process unless the educational institution owns copyright in the material.
If the educational institution does not own the copyright in the material then the making of mechanical copies must be done:
- with the permission of the copyright owner
- if a print or artistic work, under the Statutory Print Licence
See Appendix B: Statutory Print Licence
- if a musical work, under the AMCOS licence
(f) Copying for exams
Educational institutions may reproduce artistic, dramatic, musical or literary works in exam papers for free and do not need to seek the copyright owner's permission.
This exception does not allow exams to be made available on-line or to be emailed to students unless the educational institution owns the copyright in the works reproduced in the exam.
(ii) Library and archives
Libraries and archives are allowed to reproduce material in their collection in certain circumstances.
(iii) Temporary reproductions in the course of communications
Copyright in works or audio-visual material will not be infringed where they are temporarily reproduced as part of the technical process of making and receiving a communication. Temporary reproductions occur where a work or audio-visual work is reproduced automatically and for technical reasons when a person is looking or listening to the work on a remote website
This is meant to cover browsing or on-line viewing of copyright material (and sounds) and certain types of caching.
See 2.9: Internet and Websites
(iv) Artistic works
- There are special exceptions in relation to artistic works
See 2.2: Artistic Works and Photographs
(v) Computer Programs
There are special exceptions in relation to computer programs
