Making legal copies

If necessary, a training provider licensed as an educational institution can reproduce 100% of a printed work in an alternative format. 

Educational institutions can make copies in alternative formats for people with a print disability or people with an intellectual disability - if a copy is not available commercially in a suitable format within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price.  (See Checking for existing resources)

What can be copied?

For people with a print disability, literary or dramatic works can be copied.  Sheet music is not included in the provisions for copying for people with a print disability – however, educational institutions can copy up to 10%.

According to the Copyright Act 1968, ‘a person with a print disability’ is:

a.    A person without sight

b.    A person whose sight is severely impaired

c.     A person unable to hold or manipulate books or to focus or move his or her eyes; or

d.    A person with a perceptual disability.

For people with an intellectual disability (the Act does not provide a definition), educational institutions can copy literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, sound recordings and films, and radio broadcasts.  They can also make translations and picture versions of literary and dramatic works.

The Act also allows copies to be made of television programs, even if they can be purchased, for the use of people with an intellectual disability.  Educational institutions can have a licence with Screenrights ( http://www.screen.org/ ) to do this.

What format can you convert to?

• Disk or digital file (including online delivery with restricted access to students with a print disability)

• Audio tape or via another sound device

• Paper

• Large-print

• Photographic version (eg. Separate transparencies, photocopies)

• Braille

• Intermediate copies (eg. An electronic version of printed material is prepared prior to Braille embossing)

• Translations and picture versions for people with an intellectual disability

Editing text for people with an intellectual disability is allowed.  Editing text for people with other forms of disability requires the permission of the copyright owner.

What you need to do when you make copies

If the copyright of materials is owned externally:

• Identify what format you need and by when.

• Contact the publisher to find out if copies are already available in the format required.

• You can at this time seek their permission to make copies in alternative formats.  This is not a requirement of the Copyright Act unless you are changing wording of the original.

• Ask the publisher for an electronic copy of the material.  This will make it easier to produce large print, e-text, and Braille copies.  Ideally the files would be in ASCII, RTF, or Word format.  PDF (Portable Document Format) files can now be converted to text in Adobe Reader Ver 6.0.

• Check other sources for a version in the format required (this could save you time and money!)

• Include a notice on the copy stating:

• This copy was made by [XYZ] Institute of TAFE on the [date] under Part VB Division 3 of the Copyright Act 1968.

• If you are keeping a master copy of the materials, ask your library to give the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) a notice within 3 months stating:

• The name of the Institute

• The work or part of the work that was reproduced

• The date on which the copy was made

If you are not keeping a master, you do not need to report to CAL.

Potential changes

The United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement includes provision for changes to Australian Intellectual Property laws.  This means that copyright provisions could possibly change in the next few years.