US Introduces New Copyright Exemptions
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Q&As on using software & CD-ROMs for education
These Q&As are for people in educational institutions. We assume
you are familiar with the basic copyright principles in our introduction to copyright and the information on our educators page.
This information is for general guidance only; it is not legal advice.
This information is for general guidance only; it is not legal advice.
| question | date | answer | more | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Can we make available on the school intranet a CD-ROM attached to a book we purchased? | 1. Is the use licensed by the owner of copyright? Check the licence conditions (terms of use) on the packaging and/or in the contents of the CD-ROM. Your use may be allowed by the copyright owner. 2. If not, is the use allowed under the Copyright Act? If your school is covered by a remuneration notice with Copyright Agency Limited, you may be entitled to copy and communicate works stored on the CD-ROM under the electronic use scheme in Part VB of the Copyright Act. You will need to assess the application of the scheme in relation to each work on the CD-ROM, and meet the requirements of the scheme. In some cases, section 200AB may allow the use of works on the CD-ROM. 3. If it is, are you covered by a contract that prohibits the use? In some cases the terms of use will be part of a contract between you and the CD-ROM publisher (for example, if you do something to indicate your acceptance of the terms of use). If the terms of use prohibit your use, and are part of a contract, you may be in breach of the contract even if the use is allowed by the Copyright Act. | QA0012 | ||
| Can we give away decommissioned CD-ROMs from our school library to teachers for use at home? |
Yes,
provided the school is not bound by a contract that prohibits it giving
the CD-ROMs away. It is also advisable to tell the teachers that they
may use the CD-ROMs only as allowed by the Copyright Act and/or by the
terms of use for CD-ROM. | QA0038 | ||
| Where do I find the licence for software or a CD-ROM? |
30/6/2002 |
For software, licence terms and conditions may be in a pamphlet or booklet which accompanies the software, or on the CD-ROM or disk which you use to install the software. If the software you are using has been downloaded from the Net, the site may have relevant terms and conditions – you or the person who downloaded the software may have had to “click through” a licence agreement before gaining access to the software, or agree to terms and conditions before proceeding beyond a certain stage in the download process. For CD-ROMs, the packaging may have terms and conditions printed on it, or a pamphlet may have been included with the CD-ROM. In some cases, you might find a copy of the terms and conditions on in a digital file within the CD-ROM itself. | ||
| Can I use software I have purchased for private use at school? |
30/6/2002 | Check the terms of the software licence. If you have already copied the software onto a computer (for example, at home) it is unlikely it could also be copied onto a computer at the school. | ||
| Can our school lend software to students or staff? |
30/6/2002 | Generally, whether or not software may be loaned to students will depend on the terms or conditions of the relevant licence agreement. It is likely that you may lend a purchased disk to other people provided the agreement does not expressly prohibit lending or use by people other than the purchaser, or limits use only to the purchaser. In the latter case, if the relevant software has been purchased by the institution, it is likely that the relevant disk or disks may be loaned to staff, but for work purposes only. If software is to be loaned, care should be taken to make the lender aware that they may not retain any copy of the software except as allowed under the relevant licence agreement. | ||
| Can we reproduce material from CD-ROMs under the electronic use scheme in Part VB of the Copyright Act? |
30/6/2002 | You should first check the CD-ROM licence; the educational institution is likely to have legal obligations under this licence, irrespective of the position under copyright law. If it is not clear from the licence whether you are allowed to print or save to disk material from the CD-ROM, you should first consider whether the part you want to copy is an important or distinctive part of the particular work you are looking at (for example, if it is just a couple of sentences or a phrase from a lengthy text, or an unimportant detail in a large and complex diagram or artistic work, you may copy the part, subject to any contractual prohibitions). If it is an important, essential or distinctive part of a piece of text, or graphic, and there are no contractual restrictions, the educational copying provisions in the Act may allow you to reproduce and communicate the material, provided you only copy within the relevant limits. Remember also that you may need to check on the commercial availability in electronic form of the particular material you want to reproduce or communicate. | ||
| Can we make CD-ROMs which come with books available over our intranet? |
30/6/2002 | Under Part VB, material on CD-ROMs may be made available on an intranet to, for example, staff and students. Care will need to be taken that the relevant limits on the amount of material that may be made available are not exceeded, and that the relevant procedural steps, are adhered to. In practice, however, before relying on the provisions in the Copyright Act, you will need to check that neither the agreement under which the book was purchased nor any licence terms or conditions which accompany the CD-ROM purport to limit the way in which the CD-ROM may be used in a way that is inconsistent with what the electronic use scheme allows. | ||
| Can we make a copy of a CD-ROM if, for example, it is no longer available, or we need a backup? |
30/6/2002 | First check the licence agreement to see if you are allowed to make either backup or additional copies. You may copy the CD-ROM if the licence says you may; but if the licence prohibits copying, you may not make the additional or backup copy without permission from the copyright owner. If the licence agreement is silent on the point, it will often be very difficult to work out whether you may copy the CD-ROM, and you will almost invariably need legal advice. The reason it will be difficult stems firstly from the fact that a CD-ROM, for copyright purposes, is not a single item, but an item which might be composed of dozens or even hundreds of separate copyright works and other subject matter – text, graphics, film, computer programs, and so on. Secondly, before copying any one component part, you will need to consider whether you can copy each component under any of three sets of special exceptions: the exceptions for computer programs; the exceptions for libraries; and the exceptions for educational institutions. Further, in practical terms, if you are indeed able to copy any particular component part under the educational copying provisions in the Act, you will be under an obligation to mark the copy, and there will be a requirement to notify people accessing the CD-ROM from a server. The wording for the notice is in Schedule 11B of the Copyright Regulations. As a practical matter, you might generally find it easier to contact the copyright owner or distribution company for permission when an item is not commercially available or if a licence is silent on whether backups of the CD-ROM may be made. | Schedule 11B | |
| Can we lend CD-ROMs to students? |
30/6/2002 | Check the CD-ROM licence to see whether lending is prohibited. You may perhaps wish to check with the CD-ROM producer – you should try to get any statement from the CD-ROM producer in writing. If the CD-ROM producer purports to prohibit lending the CD-ROM, an institution which lends the CD-ROM may be liable for:
If you are entitled to lend the CD-ROM, you may need to consider having a notice on it informing the borrower of his or her copyright obligations and any obligations under the terms or conditions on which the CD-ROM was acquired. Alternatively, you might consider having a borrower sign an undertaking to observe his or her copyright obligations as well as any contractual obligations. | ||
| Can we make a CD-ROM available over a network? |
30/6/2002 | First check the CD-ROM licence. Unless the licence expressly allows you to make the CD-ROM contents available over a network, it is likely that you will need specific permission from the copyright owner. This is because the software must be copied to the hard disk of the viewing computer before the CD-ROM can be viewed. Storing material from the CD-ROM in the temporary memory of a computer (for example, to view it on the screen) will reproduce that material, and the CD-ROM licence may only allow viewing on one computer. In addition, networking the CD-ROM in the educational context is likely to be a “communication” of the copyright material “to the public” and therefore within the scope of the copyright owner’s control. The first step would usually be to contact the publisher of the CD-ROM. | ||
| Can students reproduce material onto their own disk from a CD-ROM? |
30/6/2002 | First check the CD-ROM licence and see what it allows people using it to do, and what it expressly prohibits. Unless prohibited by the CD-ROM licence, a student may reproduce material from a CD-ROM, or print from it, if:
| Using copyright material for research or study | |
More
- more Q&As
- our education page
- Smartcopying website (MCEETYA Copyright Advisory Group).