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Copyright Info > What can I copy?
What can I copy?
Copyright law is there to balance the rights of creators to earn a living from their works against the need for public access to their work. It provides certain "statutory exceptions" that permit copying or use of a work where that use does not prejudice the legitimate interests of the copyright owner.
Fair dealing exceptions permit copying from a copyright work for:
- Criticism, review or reporting of current events where use is accompanied by sufficient acknowledgement of the source.
- Research or private study by an individual (one copy only). No further copies can be made of the material copied and consideration must be given to:
- The purpose of the copying (it may not be deemed fair to copy for commercial purposes);
- The effect of the copying on the market for or value of a work (for example it may be available for sale);
- Whether the work is available for purchase at a reasonable price;
- How substantial the extract copied is.
Example: Instances very likely to be deemed ‘fair’:
One copy of one chapter of a book, as long as it is not a substantial part of the work (e.g. all chapter summaries).
One copy of one article from a periodical.
One copy of one chapter of a book, as long as it is not a substantial part of the work (e.g. all chapter summaries).
One copy of one article from a periodical.
Exceptions provided for certain educational institutions (schools, universities, non-profit private training establishments) permit:
- one copy of the whole or part of a work to be made for instructional purposes and use in a classroom. This includes digital copying but not communication of the work;
- multiple copying of up to 3% or 3 pages of a work where no more than 50% of the work is copied (for example no more than half a poem or article). This includes copying from digital works, digital copying and communication of the work;
- copying to set or answer exam questions;
- storage of material downloaded from the internet which can be made available to students on a password protected intranet provided certain conditions are met.
