Primary and Secondary Schools Licence

Kiwi schools have important obligations under copyright law. If your school needs a simple, affordable copyright compliance solution, our licence is here to help.

If your student teaching materials include content from books, journals, magazines or newspapers then our licence is a valuable tool to make your work much easier.

Here's an overview of what's covered under this licence.

What material can you copy?

Material that originates from a printed book, journal or magazine (sometimes called hard copies)
A scanned or digital copy of an original printed version
Overseas and local newspapers (digital and print content)

How much can you copy?

Up to 10% or one chapter of a book (whichever is greater, including pictures and graphs)
15 pages from books of short stories and poetry
Complete magazine and journal articles (one per issue, more if on the same subject)
Overseas and local newspaper articles (five per issue, from online or hard copy)

How can you share this material with students?

Printed class hand-outs and compiled worksheets
Interactive whiteboards and screens
Password-protected class webpages, including learning management and reading list software
Email

Is your school currently licensed?

Use the table below to search for your school and confirm if they hold a current print licence. Licences are valid from 1 July - 30 June. If you can't find your school name, we encourage you to get in touch with the Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa New Zealand School Boards Association (NZSBA) and Get Licensed.

Find out more on the Get Licensed website

Simplify your copyright law compliance

This copyright licence provides permission to re-use printed material sourced from books, textbooks, journals, magazines, newspapers and periodicals.

Compliance with the law: the licence provides a simple, cost-effective way to copy materials. It compliments your other licences and OA materials.

Risk management: as a licence-holder, your school will be indemnified against legal action by owners of material included in the licence. Licence-holders have access to free copyright education material and our help-desk.

Support authors and publishers: licence fees fund authors and publishers - including many local creators - to continue to produce information you need to teach your students.

Pricing and licence period

Pricing is based on your headcount, making copyright compliance a predictable fixed cost.

Annual Fee (2025 rates):
$2.04 per primary student + gst
$4.08 per secondary student + gst

These copyright licences are issued through NZSBA, as we work alongside OneMusic and Screenrights to make licensing easier for schools.

The Primary and Secondary Schools Licence can be activated for the first time at any point throughout the year, and is issued for the period 1 July to 30 June. Renewed in the middle of the year, all you need to do is update your student numbers and NZSBA will take care of the rest.

A copyright licence that meets your needs.

Did you know that 87% of schools rely on printed hand-outs in the classroom? Our copyright licence is designed to meet the needs of today's teachers and lets you focus on your students, not compliance.

Knowledge base freely available for all staff and secondary school students. If you have a curly question, just consult our
help desk.
Our second extract facility permits further copying beyond normal licence restrictions, and full copying of out-of-print works.
Free training support. Check out our resources page to download copyright awareness material or contact our Contracts and Policy Manager to discuss webinar and live copyright education seminars.

To view the full terms and conditions of this licence, you can read our Schools Licensing Agreement here.

How does the licence help me?

Teaching staff
If you’re a teacher, the licence lets you focus on delivering a high-quality education to your students while also minimising your administrative burden, allowing you to spend more of your non-teaching time on planning.The licence opens up a world of high-quality published material.

Heads of Department
If you’re in a compliance administration role, the licence is an important tool to help you to keep your school compliant with its legal obligations. It compliments other content licences, reduces risk of teaching staff being insufficiently informed of copyright obligations and there’s even a legal indemnification! We provide a range of education and compliance resources, and support from knowledgeable, responsive staff.

Senior managers
If you’re responsible for making purchasing decisions, the licence provides a well-established response to copyright’s compliance risk and administrative overhead. The licence helps by covering a broad range of copyright material, simple comprehensive terms, with a predictable EFTS-based fee structure.

School Principals
If you’re a school principal, the licence provides an effective compliance tool that lets administrators focus on your school's strategic goals. The licence helps through its broad scope and predictable cost structure.

What isn't included in the licence?

Copyright applies to published material including books, journals, newspapers, magazines, art and music - even when the copyright symbol © is not displayed. Our licence doesn't include material licensed by other collective management organisations and alternative licensing arrangements such as OA.

Our various licences enable schools that have licensed with us to copy and share much more than is available under the Copyright Act. Schools use and copy from a wide variety of learning resources, some of which come with permission to copy (e.g. Blackline Masters) and others (e.g workbooks) are published for use on a one-book-per-student basis.

But there are exclusions to what can be copied, find out more here >>