This area summarises the changes to the Copyright Act 1968 that have been ushered in by the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act 2000. It then expands a few critical areas that require schools to take action, or to be aware of as emerging dilemmas.
What does this mean for schools?
The new legislation introduces an array of changes that are important for schools to understand. The legislation:
As already mentioned, the Copyright Act has been updated to recognize that copyright owners have the exclusive right to convert copyright material into electronic form. This is called “first digitisation”.
Generally first digitisation is treated the same as making a hardcopy or analogue reproduction, or a reproduction from a work originally in electronic from.
For schools the ready availability of scanning devices today, and the actual ease of digitising material means there is an imperative to understand what is permitted and not permitted in this area.
Schools need to be aware that the copyright licence for educational institutions under Part VB of the Act allows schools to reproduce a reasonable portion of a work, (or more in certain circumstances), including a copy that involves first digitisation of copyright material. However, there are harsh penalties for authorising or committing an infringement by converting hardcopy copyright material into electronic form when the statutory provisions do not cover such an act.
In effect the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act 2000 has resulted in schools now having to deal with two schemes under the Statutory Licence provision of Part VB of the Copyright Act.
The pre-existing scheme is the Hardcopy Licence (i.e. the former print copy licence) that many educational institutions already rely on. This licence applies to copies made from hardcopy sources such as books and journals. It also covers the digitisation (scanning) of hard copy works within the limits of the hardcopy licence and their conversion to electronic form. (See below for limits)
The new scheme called the Electronic Reproduction and Communication Licence covers reproduction in an electronic form (e.g. from digital to digital) and communication of copies in electronic form (e.g. posting copies on a school intranet).
Reproduction and Communication of Works in Electronic Form
The Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act 2000 amended the Part VB educational copying provisions in the Act to allow educational institutions to:
The word reproduction is used instead of copying because it encompasses a number of copying mechanisms, not just photocopying.
Schools can exercise the statutory licence to reproduce or communicate:
From periodicals
One article from a periodical publication, and more than one if the articles relate to the same subject matter.
From literary, dramatic or musical work
The whole of a work if it has not been separately published in electronic form within a reasonable time, at an ordinary commercial price.
If separately published the limit is either 10 per cent of the words, or up to one chapter from a literary or dramatic work, or 10 per cent of a musical work.
From artistic work
The whole of an artistic work can be copied under the statutory licence.
From Anthologies
The new scheme does not contain a separate provision for the reproduction or communication of literary or dramatic works in anthologies in electronic form.
Communicating under the new scheme
Communication includes making copyright material available online and transmitting it electronically. Examples of communication include:
Generally, the amounts you can communicate are the same as the amounts you can reproduce under the educational copying schemes.
Where a work is communicated in electronic form, schools need to be aware of the following requirements:
Administration of the Electronic Reproduction and Communication Licence, under Part VB of the Statutory Licence
Part VB of the Act requires administering body (such as a State Department of Education) or the educational institution (such as an independent educational institution) to send an Electronic Use Notice to the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL).
CAL is empowered to administer the new scheme on behalf of copyright owners, as it is already the declared society under the relevant section of the Act.
The legislation provides for the educational institution and the collecting society to agree upon payment rates for the electronic reproduction and communication made by schools. If no agreement is reached, then the Copyright Tribunal will determine the rate independently. At this time the rate for digital reproduction has not yet been determined.
All government schools, all Catholic schools (except Queensland), and many TAFE institutes (except in Tasmania, NT and some in Victoria) throughout Australia are licensed for electronic reproduction and communication. Most independent schools are licensed through the relevant Association of Independent Schools in each state, but you will need to check with your administrators to ensure that is the case.
The existing library exceptions in the Copyright Act have been extended to cover:
Libraries can now make works acquired in electronic form as part of their collection available online within their premises. This needs to be done in a way that prevents patrons from:
Under the Copyright Act, a copy of a broadcast may be made or communicated (or both) by or on behalf of a body administering an educational institution, for educational purposes without infringing copyright in the broadcast, or the underlying works in the broadcast. This provision requires that the institutions has provided Screenrights with a remuneration notice.
This provision covers copying a broadcast electronically, such as on CD or DVD, and communicating it electronically, for instance by making it available on a school’s intranet or by e-mailing it.
Finally the communication of copied broadcasts online has an associated duration limit of twelve-months, for purposes of the licence. Beyond that period the material is deemed to be a new copy and communication, and so on, for each further twelve-month period. These “deemed” reproductions require additional remuneration.
This exception applies to students who are doing their own research and study rather than to works that are reproduced and communicated to students by teachers. These works fall under Part VB of the Copyright Act.
The fair dealing provisions of the Act have been extended so that a person may make a reproduction of an article (or multiple articles dealing with the same subject matter) in a periodical publication, or a reasonable portion of a literary, dramatic or musical work, in electronic form, for the purposes of research of study.
The extension of copyright law into the new area of electronic reproduction and communication means a number of on-the-ground changes for schools.
As it is a legal requirement that notices be placed on equipment used for any reproduction or communication of copyright material, schools will need to review the currency of their existing notices.
Further they will need to post the new notices required by the passing of the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act 2000 concerned with transmission or communication of copyrighted materials.
These notices are available for download from the Copyright Aware website with instruction about their application and installation.