Copying Guidelines for Independent Schools

Your independent school's licence with Access Copyright gives you permission to copy from a vast repertoire of commercially published books, magazines and newspapers. As long as you adhere to the terms and conditions of your licence, you can copy what you need worry-free.

Definition of copying includes:

  • paper copies
  • faxes
  • typing and word processing (without adaptation)
  • making slides and overheads
  • duplicating from a stencil, or tracing
  • copying onto microform (for research and archival purposes)

You can copy up to 10% of a published work in the Access Copyright repertoire or the following, whichever is greater:

  • an entire single short story, play, essay or poem from a book or periodical containing other works
  • an entire article from a newspaper, magazine or journal
  • an entire entry from a reference work (encyclopedia, dictionary)
  • an entire reproduction of an artistic work from a publication containing other works
  • a whole chapter from a book, as long as that chapter does not comprise more than 20% of the book

Works NOT covered by the licence:

  • items on the Exclusions List
  • unpublished works
  • consumable items such as workbooks, assignment sheets, and colouring books
  • Crown or provincial publications (excluding Québec)
  • instruction manuals and teachers' guides; tests and work cards
  • sheet music and original artistic works including photographs or prints
  • works published in countries with which Access Copyright does not have a bilateral agreement
  • works with notices excluding them from copying under a collective licence

Number of copies permitted:

  • one copy for each student in a class and two for each teacher
  • copies for library and administrative purposes, including communication to parents

Uses NOT covered by the licence:

  • digital or electronic reproduction
  • creation of coursepacks or anthologies