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Copyright for unit of study readings

Managing copyright through the Unit of Study Readings Service

The Unit of Study Readings Service delivers essential and recommended readings to students by digitising high demand information resources and making them available online.

The Unit of Study Readings Service also helps the University manage the electronic copying limits, reporting and other requirements of the educational statutory licence contained in the Copyright Act.

Copying limits for unit of study readings
  • The copying limits for the previous educational statutory licence for works (Part VB) were contained in the Copyright Act. The 2017 amendments to the Copyright Act remove these copying limits from the Act and permit the University to negotiate copying limits with the relevant collecting society.

    The current agreement between the University sector and Copyright Agency was entered into before the section 113P educational statutory licence commenced and does not terminate until 31 December 2018. However, the agreement provides that if the section 113P educational statutory licence is introduced during the term of the agreement, the University can copy and communicate works under the new educational statutory licence up to and including the amount that would have been permitted under Part VB (the old statutory licence).


    Books

    A “reasonable portion” of the work for each unit of study, which is 10% of the number of pages or one chapter, whichever is the greater.

    If multiple chapters make up less than 10% of the work, we can make multiple chapters available up to the 10% limit.

    More than 1 chapter or 10% can be copied if the work is not available within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price (ie the book is out of print).


    Journal articles

    One article from an issue of a journal. More than one article per issue may be copied if the works are on the same subject area.


    Music scores

    10% of the pages.

What about electronic books and journal articles in databases?
  • It is best practice to link to electronic books and journal articles within the University Library’s electronic collections. Do not upload electronic books or journal articles directly to the Learning Management System.

Why can’t I upload book chapters and journal articles to the Learning Management System?
  • Digitised book chapters, journal articles and other text works are managed through the Library to protect the University from breaching copyright by inadvertently making copies of works outside the terms of the statutory licence.

 

This information is provided as general information only. It provides a basic introduction to copyright and is not intended to be comprehensive.

Reviewed December 2017

 

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