Print music may be copied under Part VB of the the Copyright Act, administered by CAL.

In most cases, however, the limits on the amount that may be copied under Part VB mean that a school will be better off copying under its AMCOS licence. (Under the Part VB provisions, you may only copy a “reasonable portion” of a work that is separately published and commercially available, while the AMCOS licence permits you to copy an entire piece, provided you or your school owns a commercially produced copy.)

We understand that some of the school sectors which have entered into AMCOS print music agreements are happy for that agreement to be seen as an agreement which in practice replaces the Act insofar as print music is concerned. You should, however, get advice from your school’s peak organisation or governing body as to whether or not, as a matter of practice, you should photocopy music only in reliance on the AMCOS agreement.

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Under the print music licence AMCOS offers to schools, you are entitled to make up to a certain number of copies, depending on the number of copies you own, and depending on the type of music it is.

In the event that a copy is lost or damaged, you are entitled to make replacement copies. We understand that AMCOS advises that, in marking the copies, you add the words “replacement copy”.

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If the music is protected by copyright, a special exception in the Copyright Act allows a student to copy it for research or study provided the copying is "fair". Copying a work that is available for purchase is unlikely to be fair. If the practice is part of the student's research or study, the student may be able copy the music under the exception.

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If the music is protected by copyright, a special exception in the Copyright Act (section 40) may allow a student's parent may be able to copy it for the student's research or study, provided the use is fair. Section 40 This will be be affected by whether the practice is part of the student's research or study, and whether the parent's copying is for that purpose. Section 40 is unlikely to apply if the parent is copying the music to encourage the child to practice, rather than copying on behalf of the child for his or her research or study (a the instigation of the child). Section 40 is also unlikely to apply if the parent has been asked by the school to make the copy.

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Yes. The provisions in the Copyright Act administered by CAL cover anything done either by or on behalf of the relevant educational institution. Visiting trainers and external lecturers wanting to copy or communicate text or images for the lectures or classes they are running for an organisation covered by an agreement with CAL may therefore rely on the Part VB provisions in the Act to the same extent as staff of the institution.

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Section 200 of the Act allows copying of copyright material such as text, images and notated music for an “examination”. The section, however, doesn’t include any definition of what constitutes an “examination”. In our view, the section is likely to cover any type of test designed to assess the progress of a student, including weekly assessments and take-home exams, but should not be relied upon when setting homework or when testing for aptitude rather than for achievement in a particular course.

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