There are a number of approaches you might take in this situation. One possibility it to try to get permission from the relevant copyright owner to circumvent the access TPM.

Alternatively, if you are entitled to make a copy of the contents of the DVD under one of the provisions for educational institutions in the Copyright Act (including under section 200AB):

• see whether you can get a Screenrights copy from another educational institution or from a Screenrights-licensed resource centre (Screenrights may be able to assist, or pass a message around email lists); or

• see if you can find a commercially produced copy in video format (we understand that copying a video does not raise the sorts of TPM circumvention issues you face when copying a DVD).

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Legally, anyone who does something that infringes copyright is liable. Someone who instructs someone else to do something that infringes copyright may also be liable, as may the organisation that employs them.

In practice, a copyright owner is more likely to sue the organisation in which the infringements are taking place than the individual employees involved.

To protect both yourself and the organisation in which you are working, however, if you are asked to make copies that you believe will infringe copyright, consider the following options:

• refer to any relevant in-house guidelines you have that can confirm in writing that you are correct in your view;

• seek advice or assistance from your immediate supervisor or manager; and

• (if available) seek advice or assistance from the copyright adviser working within your organisation.

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A teacher may infringe copyright if he or she authorises a student to make an infringing copy. Authorising an infringement may include directing or suggesting that a student copy material where that copying is an infringement because, for example, it falls outside the scope of the research or study exception or the educational copying licences.

Generally, a teacher will not be liable for infringing copies made by a student on copying equipment (including computers) in a library of the educational institution, provided that the prescribed warning notice is placed near the machine. It is a good idea to have similar notices near copying equipment throughout the institution.

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Where copyright is infringed, the copyright owner generally has the right to bring an action against the infringer to recover damages or an account of profits. Damages is a sum of money intended to compensate the copyright owner for money lost, or spent, in respect of the infringement, and will vary with the circumstances. An account of profits is the profit made by the infringer in selling the infringing copies.

There are also penalties for not co-operating with inspections of premises by representatives of CAL and Screenrights.

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In some cases, the students may have been able to rely on the “fair dealing” provisions to copy music into their videos or PowerPoint presentations. Alternatively – in schools only – the students may have been able to rely on the AMCOS/ARIA licence to synchronise recorded music into films.

However, the educational institution will not necessarily then be in a position to upload the students’ work to its network. Assuming, therefore, that the student owns copyright in the other material on the film or in the presentation, the best ways to approach this situation would be:

• remove the music tracks before uploading the files; or

• provide students with a “safe pool” of music they can use (for example, music that has been recorded by the institution from radio under the Screenrights scheme). http://www.apra-amcos.com.au/MusicConsumers/MusicinBusiness/Schools.aspx

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Under the AMCOS licence, a school can copy more than it is otherwise entitled to under the Copyright Act, but the trade-off is that there is a limit on the number of copies that can be made from each commercially purchased copy owned by the school or by the relevant teacher.

Your options under the licence, therefore, are either:

• make do with the number of copies you can make under the licence (for example, by getting the students to look on if you don’t have enough parts); or

• acquire another set of the parts so you can make further permitted copies. http://www.apra-amcos.com.au/MusicConsumers/MusicinBusiness/Schools.aspx

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