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Copyright : its impact on teaching and learning at

University of Pretoria

Jacob MothutsiCopyright Officer

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Background

• Do you use articles from journals, books and other publications to create course packs, electronic reserved material or single-item handouts?

• Do you ever download articles from the internet?

If your answer is “YES” to any of these questions, copyright is something that you should take into

consideration

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• Whether you are a lecturer, librarian or staff member, chances are you need to:– Photocopy articles or other copyrighted materials for

course-packs, class handouts, library reserves or interlibrary loans

– Electronically reproduce materials for distant learning, electronic course-packs or electronic reserves

– Republish other’s copyrighted material in your own books, newsletter, CD’s, etc

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• But did you know that doing so without permission from the copyright owner is under many circumstances copyright infringement?

• Anyone who reproduce copyrighted material without permission can be held liable for contributory infringement

• Such is a case when they distribute multiple copies of course material without permission from the copyright owner

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Exactly, what is copyright and why should I worry about it?

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What is Copyright?

• Simply put, Copyright is the right to copy• It is part of a group of intellectual property rights, which

provide legal protection to creators of works of the mind• It grants copyright owners the right to:

– Reproduce the work– Create derivative works based on the original work– Distribute copies of the work – Perform the work, or– Display the work in public

Anyone who does all this without the permission of the copyright owner, is in violation of the Copyright Law

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What does copyright protect?

• Copyright provides authors fairly substantial control over their work. The four basic protections are:– The right to make copies of the work; – The right to sell or otherwise distribute copies of the

work;– The right to prepare new works based on the protected

work; – The right to perform the protected work (such as a

stage play or painting) in public

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Which material are protected by Copyright?

• Copyright protects works "fixed in any tangible medium of expression" in these categories: – literary works; – musical works, including any accompanying words; – dramatic works, including any accompanying music; – pantomimes and choreographic works; – pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; – motion pictures and other audiovisual works; – sound recordings;– architectural works;– computer programmes

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What cannot be covered by the Copyright Law?

• Works in public domain• Ideas• Facts• Words, names, slogans• Blank forms• Government works• Works for which copyright has expired

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Who owns copyright in a work?

• The owner of the work is either the creator or the author

BUT• Work created during the course and scope of employment under

contract of employment – EMPLOYER is the owner• Photograph/portrait/film/sound/recording/gravure –

COMMISSIONER is the owner• STATE is the owner of the work when it is made under its direction

or control• Published edition - PUBLISHER• In some cases the copyright vested in the author of the literary work

may have been assigned to the publisher through contract

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What protection does copyright offer the owner?

• If you own copyright to a work, only you, have:– The right to make copies of the work; – The right to sell or otherwise distribute copies of the

work;– The right to prepare new works based on the protected

work; – The right to perform the protected work (such as a

stage play or painting) in public• No one else has these rights and no one but you may

authorize others to have this rights by giving them permission

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Why does copyright exists?

• To encourage, support and protect your creativity and the creativity of your colleagues. The law does this by providing financial incentives to creators, including a right to sue infringers

• As a staff member working in an academic institution, you have probably written and published material such as technical articles, books or short stories. You understand the time invested to write, rewrite, edit, find an agent and a publisher. What would happen if you and others who research, invent, write and create could not be compensated for your labours? Royalty fees on course materials may seem like too much money for students to pay, but without compensation there would be no incentives to create new materials

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Why our institution is concerned about copyright?

• The university’s policy ensures that we respect the rights of authors and publishers and pay reasonable licence fees, where required by law

• Infringement of copyright by staff or students may result in legal action and possible awards of damages

• The viability of local publishers depends upon compliance with the copyright law

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What can be copied?

• Motion media: - 10% of the total or three minutes

• Text material – 10% of the total

– A chapter from a book (never the entire book)

– An article from a periodical or newspaper

• Music, lyrics, and music video – 10% of the work but not more than 30 seconds or lyrics

• Illustrations or photographs – 10% or 15 images, whichever is less from a collection

• Numerical data sets – 10% or 2,500 fields or cell entries, whichever is less

• Copying of a multimedia project – No more than two copies may be made of a project

• Poetry – Multiple copies of a poem of 250 words or less that exists on two pages or less or 250 words from a longer poem

• Prose – 10% of the total work

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What should be avoided?

• Making multiple copies of different works that could substitute for the purchase of books, publisher's reprints, or periodicals

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Copyright violation

• The author or owner of his/her licensee (in some cases) can take legal action to stop infringement of his/her rights. This can include seizure of the infringing material, damages and an interdict preventing further infringement of his/her rights. The courts have the power to award additional damages where there has been a flagrant beach of copyright.

• The Copyright Act also makes provision for criminal penalties – a fine (a maximum of R5 000 per infringement) and/or imprisonment of up to 3 years for a first conviction. The maximum fine and/or imprisonment penalty for a second conviction is R10 000 and/or 5 years .

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Duration of Copyright

• Copyright has a definite time span• Literary & Artistic works – 50 years from the end of the

year in which the author dies or 50 years from year of exploitation

• Published editions : 50 years from date on which they are first published

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Fair Use

Fair use means using the work to the extent reasonably necessary for a particular purpose and be careful not to prejudice the author by taking an excessive amount of the work concerned.

Example : Complete copying of whole chapters of books by lecturers/students – this cannot be seen as fair dealing.

GOLDEN RULE OF FAIR DEALING

“Take not from others to such an extent and in such a manner that you would be resentful if they so took from you” - Joseph McDonald

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Copyright and fair use

• Fair use is the legal right to copy a limited amount of copyrighted material without obtaining copyright permission from the copyright owner

• Copyright law allows for limited uses of copyrighted material for societal benefit without the author’s permission for specific purposes

• Under fair use, small portion of copyright works can be used to support research

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Reproduction of copyrighted material for educational purposes

• The law (presently under review) permits the making of limited numbers of copies of works for personal use, study and research, and teaching, without having to apply for copyright permission, viz:

• Personal copies for use by a student, a researcher and a teacher/lecturer: having regard to the totality and meaning of a work, one copy of a "reasonable and necessary portion" of a work, consistent with fair practice, can be made without permission (Regulation 2(a)).

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Reproduction of copyrighted material for educational purposes ….continues

• Copies for students made by academic departments: one copy of a "reasonable portion" per student per course, may be made by or for a lecturer for classroom use or discussion, without permission (Regulations 2 &7).

• Not more than "a reasonable portion" should be made, provided "the cumulative effect of the reproductions does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work to the unreasonable prejudice of the legal interest and residuary rights of the author" (Regulation 2(b)).

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Application for copyright clearance

- Application forms are obtainable at the copyright office or electronically on the library web page

- All applications should be lodged before any duplication of material that are copyrighted can commence

- Duplication of work should be made in the following manner, after permission has been obtained from DALRO or owner of the copyright:

• At the Publication and Printing Services Division of UP

• At officially contracted entities; and

- In exceptional circumstances, on equipment of UP or equipment under the control of UP

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Types of application

• Electronic Reserved Copies– These are articles which are scanned and accessed

electronically by students• Single-item handouts

– These are articles which are part of a reading pack provided to students

• Course-Packs– These are articles included in a course-pack

• Short-loan Reserved articles– These are articles which may be part of lecture notes

which are placed on the library reserved shelf

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Digitization

• We live in an increasing digital world• Libraries have recently launched projects designed to

digitize their collections and place them on the web• Digitization is the process of creating a digital image and

then presenting it on a computer, LAN or the Internet

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Copyright and Digitization

• When digitizing documents, a library first needs to determine whether the item is protected by copyright or is in public domain

• If the material is protected by copyright, the library will need to obtain permission from the copyright owner before making the digitized copy available on the Network

• If the item is in the public domain, the library does not need permission to digitize it and make it available

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For all your copyright inquiries and clearance, contact

• Lucas Nhlangulela (Copyright officer)

+27 12 420 6908

lucas.nhlangulela@up.ac.za

• Annah Molefe (Copyright officer)

Annah.molefe@up.ac.za

+27 012 420 4191

• Bettie de Kock (System administrator)

bettie.dekock@up.ac.za

+27 420 5957