Frequently asked questions about copyright
Other copyright questions?
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Does my organisation need a copyright policy?
Compliance with copyright law is an important legal obligation for all organisations, and it follows that all organisations need an up-to-date copyright policy that all staff are familiar with. Your copyright policy should address both how your staff ...
What is the status of commercial PTEs under the Copyright Act?
The fair dealing exception for education does not apply to commercial organisations, including commercial PTEs. This is because the definition of “education establishment” in the Copyright Act specifically excludes organisations conducted for profit. ...
Isn’t it hard to prove that copyright infringement has occurred?
Not really: copyright law is generally a matter for civil law rather than criminal law. Civil law requires a lower burden of proof—a balance of probabilities rather than proof beyond reasonable doubt—thus making it easier to prove infringement.
Can’t I legally copy 10% without it being infringement?
If your organisation holds a CLNZ licence, then you can copy up to 10% provided that you comply with the other terms of the licence. However, there is no general permission nor special threshold; if a fair dealing exception does not apply then any ...
Do copyright works need to be registered with CLNZ to receive a payment?
No: registering works helps our researchers but does not increase the likelihood of attracting a payment. Payments are allocated on the basis of reported usage by licenceholders, and each new work reported as being used must be validated by our ...
What if the rights have reverted to the author or the author agreed to the reuse?
This depends on the author’s publishing contract, if any. If a contract is not explicit about reversion of rights, or if it requires that a certain procedure take place before the reversion can be said to have occurred, then the author may need to ...
But getting permission is difficult!
When selecting material to reuse it’s a good idea to choose material that will be simple to clear for the use you envisage. CLNZ can sometimes assist with one-off transactional licences too.
If someone else is paid to create a work, then where does copyright rest?
Usually if the work is created by a staff member in the course of their employment then the copyright will rest with the employer. However, if the creator is an independent contractor then they will usually retain copyright unless there is a written ...
If there is no commercial aspect to the re-use, then permission is not needed?
Usually permission is needed anyway. The content creator may set more permissive conditions if the use is non-commercial, but permission will nevertheless be needed.
If the author is credited, then permission is not needed?
There is a legal obligation to credit the author unless the author has agreed to not to be credited or if it is unreasonable to do so. Depending on the author’s preference you are likely to need to seek permission as well as crediting them—unless ...
If changes are made to the work, then permission is not needed?
It does not matter—particularly if you’re using an important part of the work. Changes made to others’ works can also be regarded as ‘derogatory treatment’ under the law.
If only a small amount of a work is used, then permission is not needed?
Permission can still be required if your use does not fit within one of the fair dealing exceptions in the Copyright Act.
A work doesn’t have a copyright notice; is it protected by copyright?
It does not matter. This misunderstanding probably comes from the US, where before 1 January 1979 a notice was required to retain copyright. The US subsequently signed the Berne Convention and as a result the use of copyright notices became optional ...
If a work is available online then can’t anyone use it? Isn’t it public domain?
Copyright applies irrespective of whether the work is online. The work still has an author and copyright law still allows the author to set some rules on how their work is used by others. If not expressed somewhere in the online work itself, these ...
Can a name or title be protected by copyright?
No, the prevailing opinion is that it does not apply to things like names or titles that may be duplicated coincidentally or in unrelated circumstances, although there has been some recent EU case law that suggests that copyright may apply to ...
Can copyright protect ideas?
No, copyright applies to the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. Some other forms of intellectual property right—patents are a good example—apply to ideas.
Can I post a copy to myself as proof that it is copyright?
It might—the reasoning being this is that the sealed copy of the work has your name and a dated postmark applied by the postal service—but it’s potentially very weak evidence because there is no verifiable way that the contents have not been tampered ...
If a work is unpublished does copyright apply?
Copyright applies as soon as an idea is recorded in some way, such as saved to a computer file or recorded on paper—so formal publication is not a prerequisite for copyright to apply.
About this section
Licence administrators are often also responsible for dealing with other copyright inquiries from staff within their organisation. Here we’ve provided answers to some commonly asked questions you may hear.