23/3/12
Making sure you comply with copyright regulations can be quite confusing. Legally, you are able to copy up to 10% of a publication for use in your own classroom, however there are some provisions to this privilege.
Firstly, the spirit of the Copyright Act (1968) suggests that the 10% you copy is a per year figure and generally refers to 10% of the number of pages in a book. Of course, photocopying and distributing copies of publications to anyone other than your own class is not allowed at all.
Secondly, if a book has sections of significance, for example, If one section contains recipes and another contains stories, then the 10% rule applies to each separate section of the book. You can copy 10% of the recipes and 10% of the stories.
For example, the iMaths Student Books contain three sections of significance - Investigations, Topics and Strategies. Using the 10% rule, only two pages of the 24 pages of Investigations can be copied for your classroom use.
Some teachers have been advised to scan the pages of books in order to project these through their Interactive White Boards. While it cuts down on photocopying, without the express permission of the publisher scanning is not allowed.
iMaths Student Book pages are available for you as projectables at iMaths Online so you can use your Interactive White Boards and comply with copyright rules at the same time.
For more information on copyright laws please visit the CAL (Copyright Agency Limited) website @ www.copyright.org.au.