August 2007

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Overview of copyright
Part 3: Individuals with a print disability
Part 4: Print disability organisations
Part 5: Educational provisions of the Copyright Act
Part 6: Copyright owners
Part 7: Glossary

Overview of Copyright

This Part provides a brief overview of copyright as it relates to people with a print disability. For further information about copyright, click here.

Generally, someone wanting to use copyright material in the ways reserved to the copyright owner needs permission, unless a special exception to infringement applies.

2.1    What material is protected by copyright?

Only certain categories of material are protected by copyright. These include:

• literary works (this category includes novels, articles, reports, letters, stories, poems, tables of information, compilations and computer software);
• dramatic works (such as plays and screenplays);
• artistic works (including graphs, illustrations and diagrams);
• musical works;
• films (including TV programs); and
• sound recordings.

Copyright does NOT protect the following:

• information or ideas (copyright only protects the work itself, not the ideas or information expressed in the work);
• names, titles or slogans (these things are too “insubstantial” to be regarded as “works”); or
• methods, styles or techniques.

2.2    What are the rights of the copyright owner?

Copyright owners are generally entitled to control certain uses of their material. In particular, if you are not the copyright owner, you generally need permission to:

• reproduce the material (for example by photocopying, scanning, copying a digital file, printing from a digital file, or making a sound recording of someone reading out the text); or
• communicate the material (this includes transmitting the material electronically, for example by putting it online on the internet or an intranet, emailing a file, faxing, and broadcasting).

2.3    When can you use copyright material without permission?

The Copyright Act sets out some situations in which copyright material can be used without permission. These are known as “exceptions” to infringement. Exceptions apply where the material is being used for particular purposes, but they do not necessarily allow the whole of a work to be used.

In many cases, the exceptions only apply to particular people or organisations. In some cases, the person using the material also has administrative obligations (such as keeping records). In some cases, the user is also required to pay for the use.

Exceptions to infringement include:

• fair dealing for research or study (more here)
• “format-shifting” books and magazines you own (more here
• copying and communication by “institutions assisting people with a print disability” (more here)
  
• copying and communication by educational institutions (more here)
• copying and communication by libraries and archives (more here)
• use of copyright material for the services of State, Territory or Commonwealth governments (more here)
  
• a “special case” exception that may apply in some cases where no other exceptions to infringement deal with the situation.

Exceptions that are particularly relevant to people with print disabilities are outlined in these Guidelines, in Parts 3, 4 and 5.
 

2.4    Permission (licences)

If you want to use copyright material in one of the ways reserved to the copyright owner, and you cannot rely on an exception to infringement, you need to get permission. In legal terms, this permission is called a “licence”. Generally, the copyright owner can give permission. In some situations you can get permission from other people or organisations – a publisher or a copyright collecting society (such as CAL), for example. Permission can be granted verbally or in writing, and in some cases can be implied, as discussed in the following paragraphs.

a.    Express licences

In some cases, copyright owners expressly grant permission to use their material without users having to contact them. For example, many websites contain statements about what people visiting the site may do with the material, such as “You may download and print one copy, for your reference, of documents available from this site.” Sometimes other material, such as reports or educational books, also contain express licences.

If you want to do something that is outside what is granted by an express licence, you should contact the copyright owner.

In some cases, there may be a symbol indicating that the item is subject to a “shareware” type licence, such as a “Free for Education” (FfE) or “Creative Commons” licence. The terms and conditions of such licences may be set out in the material, or on a website whose URL is provided.

b.    Implied permission

An implied licence (or permission) must be so obvious that it goes without saying that you may use the material without express permission. For example, if a PDF file is provided on a website without any access protection or copy protection, you would generally have implied permission to download it and make an accessible copy for your own personal use. The implied licence would not necessarily give you permission to make more copies than you need in order to access the file, nor to make copies for others, nor to “communicate” the file (for example, by emailing it or putting it on another website).

You cannot rely on an implied licence if:

• there is an express statement to the contrary (even if there otherwise appears to be an implied licence);
• you have made an agreement not to use the material in the particular way; or
• the material you want to use is an infringing copy.

2.5     “Technological protection measures” (TPMs)

TPMs are technological methods designed to prevent people from infringing copyright in material in digital form. A TPM does this by either preventing unauthorised access (“access-control” TPMs) or preventing unauthorised use such as copying (“copy-control” TPMs).
In some cases, software is available that enables you to “circumvent” TPMs. Generally, people who make and/or supply such software are liable for civil and criminal penalties under the Copyright Act. There are penalties for:

• circumventing an access-control TPM (except in the circumstances set out below);
• manufacturing or supplying a device to circumvent a TPM; and
• providing a service to circumvent a TPM.

There are some “permitted purposes” for which a person may circumvent an access-control TPM to get access to copyright content. These include:

• access to copyright material by libraries, archives and educational institutions in order to make an acquisition decision, where the material is not available in unprotected form;
• reproduction or communication by educational institutions of literary, dramatic and artistic works and print music in electronic form, under the educational provisions of the Copyright Act;
• reproduction or communication by print disability institutions of literary or dramatic works under the print disability provisions of the Copyright Act; and
• reproduction and communication of material by libraries under certain of the library provisions of the Copyright Act.

2.6    Moral rights

Creators (writers and composers, for instance) have rights in relation to their work even when they do not own copyright in it. Generally, even if you have permission from the copyright owner to use a work (or an exception to infringement applies), you are still obliged to respect the creators’ moral rights. You can usually fulfil this obligation by making sure that creators are properly attributed, and that if you make changes to material you are using (for example, inserting a verbal description of a diagram), the changes do not distort the meaning or effect of the work.

For more information, see our information sheet Moral rights: click here.

2.7    Copyright and the Disability Discrimination Act

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) (DDA) prohibits discrimination in (among other things) the provision of goods or services on the basis of disability, unless non-discriminatory action would impose unjustifiable hardship on the provider of goods or services.
In some circumstances, the DDA may require organisations to make certain publications available in a form accessible to people with a print disability. For example, educational institutions may be required to provide course material in accessible forms. For information on the requirements, see http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/education/education.html.

The DDA does not override copyright owners’ rights to control certain uses of their material, and does not generally require publishers to make books or other materials available in accessible formats. Organisations (including educational institutions) that need to make copies in accessible formats must rely on specific exceptions to infringement or get permission from copyright owners.