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New Copydan agreement gives teaching staff better conditions for copying material

Universities Denmark has entered into a new agreement which provides better opportunities for copying material which is protected by copyright. The agreement will enter into force on 1 January 2017.

2016.12.21 | Mette Helm

[Translate to English:] Foto: Colourbox.

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The previous agreement made it possible for teaching staff to copy a maximum of 20 pages of the same material per student per semester. The limit will now be raised to 50 pages. This is one of the conditions of the new framework agreement on the use of copyrighted material which Universities Denmark’s Directors’ Committee and Copydan entered into on 12 December.

The agreement thereby improves the university’s opportunities for copying material for use in teaching. This agreement also makes it possible for university staff to copy copyrighted material for research or administrative purposes.

University Director Arnold Boon, who is AU’s representative in Universities Denmark’s Directors’ Committee and was involved in the conclusion of the agreement, sees this as a step in the right direction, but believes that there is still room for improvement.

“We must ensure that teaching staff have good opportunities for using the material which contributes the most to the academic content of the courses. Currently, however, copying leads to significant expenses for the university. This is also the case in connection with material produced by our own researchers. I expect that the new national library after the merger between the State and University Library and the Royal Library will have a stronger position in future negotiations regarding the terms and conditions in the agreement with Copydan,” he says.

In the coming years, copying at universities will be studied based on an initiative from Copydan. The study will be carried out to see how much copyrighted material is actually used.

 

Facts: In accordance with the new agreement:

  • In future, you may copy up to 20% of the same material – but no more than 50 pages – per student per semester for use in teaching regardless of whether it is digital or printed material. In the previous agreement, the limit was 20 pages and only for digital use.
  • Digital copies of the material may be stored in the LMS system Blackboard, because it is a password-protected intranet. It is still not allowed to redistribute the material via email.
  • As in the previous agreement, digital copying of newspapers is not allowed. It is only allowed to photocopy and print newspapers including printing from the internet.
  • If the university wants to copy copyrighted material to an extent which exceeds the framework of this agreement, a separate consent must be obtained from the rightholders. Copydan will as far as possible assist in obtaining such consent.

The new agreement will enter into force on 1 January 2017. Shortly after New Year, AU Library’s websites with information about copyright will be updated with the rules of this new agreement. Read the new agreement

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Revised 15.11.2022 - 
Mette Helm