Copying Guidelines for Elementary and Secondary Schools

Download a copy of our copying guidelines for elementary and secondary schools

The proposed Access Copyright Elementary and Secondary School Tariff, 2010-2012 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 the proposed tariff, you can copy what you need worry-free. This tariff has not yet been certified by the Copyright Board of Canada.

You Can Always Copy

  • anything with the permission of the copyright owner
  • all or part of a work for private study, research, criticism, review or news reporting, if what you do is "fair dealing"
  • insubstantial parts of a work
  • works published during the author's lifetime, if the author died more than 50 years ago (but not recent translations or annotations of such a work)
  • if an exception in the Copyright Act applies

Under the Proposed Tariff…

You may make copies, for school purposes, of excerpts of up to 10% of books, journals, magazines and newspapers.

The 10% limit may be exceeded if required to copy:

  • an entire chapter that comprises 20% or less of a book
  • an entire article or page from a newspaper, magazine or journal
  • an entire short story, play, essay or poem
  • an entire entry from a reference work
  • an entire reproduction of an artistic work from a publication
  • an entire reproduction of a musical work provided that, if taken from a book, does not comprise more than 20% of that book
  • up to 100% of reproducibles, including assignment sheets and blackline masters
  • an entire choral, orchestral work, or other commercially available sheet music*

*Subject to certain conditions. Please consult Section 3(d) of the proposed tariff for more information.

Under the proposed tariff's copying limits, you can also:

  • scan and save
  • post scanned materials to a secure network
  • project and display scanned copies for presentations to students on an overhead projector, LCD or plasma monitor, or interactive whiteboard.

You must:

  • ensure that the author's name and the source appear on at least one page of your copies. If necessary, write them down on one of the pages
  • respect the moral rights of authors
  • limit the number of copies to one per student, two for the teacher and a reasonable amount for administrative purposes, to contact parents and the community and to allow on-site consultation or loan at a library

The tariff does not authorize you to:

  • intentionally "split" copying runs to exceed the limits mentioned above
  • copy instruction manuals or teachers' guides
  • make course packs (a set of copies totalling fewer than 20 pages and coming from fewer than four sources is not a course pack)
  • copy publications containing a notice prohibiting reproduction under a licence with a collective society

To find out more about copying under the proposed tariff, please contact Access Copyright at 416-868-1620 (toll-free 1-800-893-5777) or email us.