The Statutory Print licence is based upon the provisions of Part VB of the Copyright Act which permits educational institutions to make multiple copies of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works for educational purposes. Payment is made to the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) which is the collecting society that administers the Statutory Print licence. All government schools and most non government schools and TAFEs are covered by the Statutory Print licence.
See also 1.12: Collecting Societies
All copying under the Statutory Print licence must be:
Any copying outside the Statutory Print licence requires permission from the copyright owner.
Educational institutionsinclude:
Educational purposeincludes a reproduction or communication of copyright work:
Reproductionincludes scanning and photocopying.
Communicationincludes posting a work on the internet or an intranet site, sending by email or fax or providing access over a network.
Hardcopy in relation to literary, dramatic and musical works in print form includes books, magazines, newspapers, journals or periodicals.
Electronic worksin relation to literary, dramatic and musical works in electronic form includes CD-Roms, websites, word documents and emails.
Separately published generally means supplying copies to the public or making copies available to the public. For example:
Reasonable time is six months for text books and thirty days for other material. For electronic works, in an online context, reasonable time may be shorter, given the ease of electronic delivery of materials via the Internet.
Ordinary commercial price is likely to be what the market rate for that work is or has been or a comparable price to other works of the same nature.
Educational institutions may make multiple copies of insubstantial parts of literary and dramatic works (but not musical or artistic works) for free and without a remuneration notice.
In relation to hardcopy works:
In relation to electronic works:
There is an express time limit between acts of copying from the same work. Educational institutions cannot claim the benefit of this provision if that work (whether the same or a different part) has already been, in the previous 14 days:
In addition, the copying must be:
There is no requirement to:
Where an educational institution may reproduce or communicate a 'reasonable portion' of a literary, musical or dramatic work. Depending on the format of the Work, a different licence scheme applies:
The hardcopy scheme covers the reproduction of hardcopy literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works including:
The copying limits under the hardcopy scheme permit an educational institution to reproduce:
In addition, a whole work can be copied in the following circumstances:
Where a hardcopy work is reproduced in hard copy form, (eg photocopied) there is no requirement to place a notice on the copies made. However where a hardcopy work is converted into electronic form and communicated, each reproduction or communication must include a specific notice.
See EUS Notice Requirements
Appendix F: Sample Form of the Notice
EUS covers original works created or accessed in a digital format. The EUS applies where a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works is in electronic form and is either reproduced or communicated for educational purpose, including
The EUS does not cover:
Under the EUS licence educational institutions may reproduce and communicate:
In addition, a whole work can be copied in the following circumstances:
Where a work is communicated in electronic form (eg by email or being made available on the educational institution's intranet):
See Appendix F: Sample Form of Notice
Work |
Relevant limit |
Notice required |
|---|---|---|
Literary, artistic and dramatic works |
Reasonable portion (defined below) |
s135ZXA notice is required. |
Musical works |
The relevant limit is 10% of the number of pages. |
s135ZXA notice is required. |
Periodical publications |
One article from the periodical or two or more where the articles relate to the same subject matter |
s135ZXA notice is required. |
Artistic works accompanying literary, dramatic or musical works |
All of an artistic work may accompany a reproduction or communication of a literary, dramatic or musical work if it relates to that work. |
The same notice requirements which apply to the accompanying literary, dramatic or musical work |
See Appendix F: Sample Form of Notice
An educational institution may reproduce multiple copies or communicate more than a reasonable portion of a literary, dramatic or musical (up to the whole work) if it is:
It is important to note that there are different provisions in relation to artistic works.
See Special Issues: Artistic Works
Educational institutions must give CAL a remuneration notice before they can rely on the Statutory Print Licence.
Under the sampling remuneration notice, schools are not required to keep a record of their usage of copyright material unless they are included in a sampling exercise. This usually occurs every few years. This exercise requires the school to record all uses of copyright material over certain period of time. This data is used to set licence fees and calculate relative distribution rates for copyright owners.
Though schools have the option of keeping a record of all works reproduced or communicated under the Statutory Print Licence, the Records Notice scheme has not been adopted by schools and the Sample Notice scheme operates to its exclusion.
Artistic works are treated differently under the Statutory Print Licence.
The Copyright Act does not define "a reasonable portion' of an artistic work. It is not clear what amounts to insubstantial copying of an artistic work. Usually the whole of the artistic work is copied, and this does not become an issue.
Artistic works accompanying text - the whole or part of an artistic work which accompanies text may be reproduced.
Artistic works with no accompanying text - The whole or part of an artistic work that:
'Separately published' means that the works is available separately and should be purchased if available.
Under the EUS, all of an artistic work may be copied and communicated.
No more than one work may be made available at any time including by:
Where an educational institution communicates an artistic work (by email or caching on an intranet), the artistic work must be accompanied by the correct notice.
Separate publication of an artistic work occurs where it is commercially available. For example as any of the following - postcard, poster, slide set or similar reproduction or as an e-card or digital artwork on the internet.
It does not include a public exhibition of an artistic work.
Educational institutions may copy the whole or part of an artistic work if it accompanies a literary, dramatic or musical work by way of illustration or explanation. This does not cover copying artistic works contained in an article or other work that is unrelated to the accompanying text.
Where an artistic work is in electronic form but not available in hard copy form (because it is not accompanying the text or has not been commercially published), the educational institutions may still make a copy under the EUS for educational purposes.
When an artistic work is communicated in electronic form:
Educational institutions are permitted to make slides from artistic works from art books provided slides of the artistic work are not commercially available.
The Statutory Print Licence does not cover more than 10 % of sheet music unless the work is not available within a reasonable time and an ordinary commercial price. For this reason most schools rely on the AMCOS licence.
The Statutory Print Licence does not cover:
The educational institution may copy any of a separate literary or dramatic works in anthology where the work is 15 pages or under. If the educational institution wishes to copy a number of separate works contained in the anthology, it may only copy up to 10 % of the anthology.
The educational institution may copy more than 15 pages of a work in an anthology where the work is not separately published.
The Statutory Print Licence covers educational institutions copying literary dramatic, musical and artistic works from websites including:
Webpage is a text file usually coded in HTML.
Website is a collection of webpages, published together on the internet by one person or organisation under the same domain name (internet address)
A reasonable portion is for a print work on the internet is:
The concept of 'a reasonable portion' in relation to artistic works does not usually arise, as usually only the whole work is copied.
See also 2.2: Artistic works and photographs and Appendix B: The Statutory Print Licence and Artistic works
Educational institutions should ask the following questions:
There is no simple rule on how to apply this general principle to the Internet, however the following principles may provide some assistance:
It is relatively easy with some on line content to draw analogies with the print world. See comparative table below:
Type of website/webpage |
Print world analogy |
What can I copy online? |
|---|---|---|
An online magazine or journal (eg, The Bulletin, Women's Weekly, British Medical Journal) |
A magazine or journal |
One article from each edition (eg, one article from the March edition of a magazine, or from the summer volume of a journal). Two or more articles may be copied from the same edition if they relate to the same subject matter. |
A newspaper website (eg The Sydney Morning Herald or The Age website) |
A newspaper |
One article per day (or per edition, if there is more than one edition per day) Two or more articles may be copied if they relate to the same subject matter. |
A report or other document that is separately published online (for example, as a PDF file) |
A report/printed publication |
10% of the words in the work, or up to one chapter if the work is divided into chapters. |
A collection of webpages containing information under a common hyperlink or index (for example, a collection of recipes, poetry or medical fact sheets) |
An anthology |
There is no separate provision for electronic anthologies in the Copyright Act. A solution to this issue is being discussed with CAL. |
