Reprographics - FAQ
Reproduction FAQ
Do I need a licence to photocopy a chapter from a book?
You do not if it's for your own personal and private use. You can find out more about private use in the fair dealing section.
Am I allowed to photocopy 10% or less of a published work?
No. The Copyright Act says nothing about 10% or about any other percentage. 10% may be 'fair' but then again, it may not, because the test for fair dealing is qualitative and quantitative. Find out more about this in the section on fair dealing.
Can I put a photocopy of a journal article on short loan and let my students make a copy?
No. This would infringe copyright, and isn't part of fair dealing.
How about if I make the journal itself available for the students to copy?
Each student may make a 'fair dealing' copy, but 100 students each making a copy results in 100 copies. This isn't likely to be 'fair' in court.
Do I need a licence for electronic distribution?
Yes. You need a licence even if you scan a short extract from a book, or an article in a journal into your computer and transmit it electronically to your students.
How will I know what I must licence for?
We presume every student in the class will receive an electronic copy. So, you must licence the number of pages in the original (print) work x the number of students in the class.
May I download and print out an article from the Internet and photocopy it for my class of 20 students?
You may print out a copy for your personal or private use (if there are no technological measures preventing you from doing so) but you may not further reproduce it for students. You need permission from the rightsholder to do this.
May I copy a page from a book or journal to project on an overhead projector?
Yes. This is allowed in terms of Section 12 (4) of the Copyright Act.
If I don't exceed the number of instances of multiple copying, why should I get a licence?
The instances of multiple copying for educational purposes refer specifically to 'classroom use or discussion'. If you're not using the copies in the classroom or for discussion, you need a licence.
How about newspapers and magazines?
Newspapers and magazines usually administer their own reprographic reproduction rights. You need to contact an editor at the publication to get permission. If the article has been contributed by a freelancer, he or she will often own copyright, but your first stop will be the publication itself.
Can I go ahead and copy if the book I want to copy from is out of print?
No. 'Out of print' does not necessarily mean 'out of copyright'.
In South Africa, copyright lasts for 50 years after the death of the author. There are also two copyrights in every published page; the author may own copyright in the content and the publisher owns copyright in the published edition, or the typographical arrangement on the page. Copyright in the published edition lasts for 50 years from the end of the year in which the work was first published.
May I copy if the book is out of print and unavailable?
Publishers and authors don't only exploit a work when it's in print, and sales aren't the only means of exploiting a work. Long after a book is out of print it may still generate revenue for its creators through, e.g. translation rights, film rights and reprographic reproduction (photocopying) rights.
What about photographs, drawings, graphs, maps and so on?
These are all defined as 'artistic works' in the Copyright Act, and are copyright protected.
May I copy Masters or Doctoral theses in educational institutions' libraries or archives?
A thesis or dissertation is not a published work, but it is still copyright protected. The author of the work is the copyright owner unless he has assigned copyright in writing to the institution.
Since DALRO does not own copyright in the books and journals, how can it licence the photocopying of them?
It is not necessary to own copyright in a work to licence its reprographic reproduction.
Copyright consists of a whole bundle of rights: the right to reproduce a work; to publish it; to publish it in a certain territory, or in a certain language; to adapt it (make a film script from a book or turn a long and complex novel into a easy reader for adults); to include it in an anthology of short stories and poems, and so on.
To licence a photocopy, a person or entity other than the copyright owner, needs only to possess the right of reproduction, which DALRO does.
How does DALRO get the right of reproduction?
It enters into agreements with authors and publishers and is mandated to administer this right.
Why should I have to pay copyright fees? Isn't information supposed to be free?
The royalties collected by RROs are distributed back to the rightsholders, the people who have, through their mental efforts, created the intellectual property. Without reimbursement, they have little incentive to go on creating, and there would be no information. In any case, no photocopied page is free: you pay for the paper, the ink, the toner and the use of the machine. When you pay a copyright fee as well, you also pay for the content - arguably the most valuable element of the photocopied page.