Legitimate Exemption for Teaching Purposes:
There are legitimate exemptions for teaching purposes and the law makes provision for the making of limited numbers of copies without copyright permission for the following purposes:
Research or Personal/Private Use
Section 12(1) of the Act allows the making of a single copy of a reasonable portion of a work consitent with fair dealing for the purposes of research, private study or personal or private use of the individual using the work.
Reproduction for Education
Section 12(4) of the Act allows a work to be used without permission for teaching purposes provided that the use is reasonable and that the name of the author and/or source is clearly acknowledged. This does not mean that the work may be used as the only or primary source for teaching in the field concerned.
Multiple Copies for Classroom Use:
According to regulation 2 the reproduction of a work in terms of section 13 of the Act shall be permitted if "the cumulative effect of the reproduction does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work to the unreasonable prejudice of the legal interest and residuary rights of the author".
"Cumulative effect" is defined as:
- "not more than one short poem, article, story or essay
or
- two excerpts copied from the same author
or
- more than three short poems, articles, stories or essays from the same collective work or periodical volume"
and
- "no more than 9 instances of such multiple copying for one course of instruction to a particular class during any one term" may be made without copyright permisson.
This can be interpreted as no more that 27 short poems, articles, stories or essays (but not more than 3 from the same periodical volume) taken from 9 different works per term per course.