Utrecht copyright information point
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Copyright and education
A number of guidelines are presented below on the correct procedures with regard to copyright relating to learning tools. The guidelines apply to printed and digital readers as well as to material that is included in Blackboard and other electronic learning environments (ELOs).
Flow chart for including publications in teaching materials
This flow chart (in Dutch) is a step-by-step guide to what you need to do if you want to use copyright-protected material in teaching materials.
Linking versus full inclusion
Linking is always permitted!
No fee needs to be paid for an internet reference (link) to material that is freely accessible on the Internet. This also applies to links to electronic resources that are not freely accessible but for which the library has entered into a licence agreement for use within Utrecht University.
How to link to material that is available within Utrecht University Library is explained in a manual (in Dutch only).
Use of copyright-protected work by others
Under the Copyright Act, the use of a short section of work protected by copyright in teaching materials is permitted without the need to request permission in advance. However, you must register that use with the copyright owner, and you will be required to pay a fair fee. For longer sections, permission must be sought. In both cases, it goes without saying that you must clearly state the source.
Up to and including 2010 Utrecht University has entered into a reader agreement with the Nederlands Uitgeversbond (Dutch Publishers Association) and Stichting PRO (Foundation for publication and reproduction rights). This agreement indicates exactly how much of a text may be used without permission, what it costs and how that use must be reported. Stichting PRO has been appointed as the central reporting and payment address in this regard.
This agreement has not been renewed: at this moment (June 2011) negotiations about renewal are still going on. Until a new agreement has been concluded, the practical execution of the old agreement will be continued.
Besides the reader agreement, agreements have also been made directly with publishers. These agreements overrule the Copyright Act and so also the reader agreement.
Using material of which you are the author without paying a fee depends on the conditions under which you have transferred the copyright to the publisher. Please consult your own contract or contact your publisher.
No permission needs to be sought for “Open Access” publications and no fees need to be paid. Sometimes it is necessary to ask permission in advance, so always read the conditions when using open access articles.
An example of an open access licence is the one by the Creative Commons Nederland in which the author provides guidelines.
[c] 2011 The authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The reader agreement
The reader agreement makes a distinction between short sections of text/short works (website in Dutch) and longer sections or works.
Utrecht University pays Stichting PRO an annual compensation fee for the use of short works or short sections of text from Dutch and international works in printed or digital readers and in the electronic learning environment. It is not necessary to report every use of short sections of text individually, but PRO does want to receive a reference copy of every reader in which material has been used under the compensation fee scheme, with a statement regarding the number of copies.
In the case of publication via Blackboard or other electronic learning environments, nothing needs to be sent. Members of teaching staff who compile readers using short sections of copyrighted text must take care of this themselves, as this is not centrally regulated.
N.B. This applies only to readers containing information covered by the compensation fee scheme. This does not apply to readers consisting exclusively of publications for which the rights have already been arranged through licences issued by the publishers (see Agreements with publishers) and/or open access publications.
N.B. There are tools available to count the number of words in digital documents. In Word select Review > Word Count, and you can upload your PDF document to Count On It to find out the number of words.
For longer works, for which no permission has been granted through licence agreements with publishers, you must request permission before using them. You can request permission directly from the publisher or arrange this through Stichting PRO. PRO has an online application form (in Dutch) that can be used to request permission. Stichting PRO wants to receive a reference copy of every reader including longer works or longer sections of works, with a statement regarding the number of copies and proof of permission having been granted. You must arrange this yourself as this is not centrally regulated.
In the case of the inclusion of longer works or longer sections of works, you will receive an invoice on the basis of applicable rates for inclusion (in Dutch).
Example longer sections
Suppose you want to include a forty page article from a foreign publisher in a reader.
The costs are € 0,197 (VAT excluded) per page, per student. There are 30 students in your course. The total sum for this particular article will amount to: € 0,197 x 40 x 30 = € 236,40 (VAT excluded) or € 281,32 (VAT included).
Agreements with publishers
Utrecht University Library has entered into a large number of agreements with publishers who regulate access to the electronic versions of journals and books. A number of these contracts specify that articles or chapters may be included in printed or digital readers and/or on an internal network for the purposes of education. As a result, no separate permission needs to be sought and no fee needs to be paid.
Naturally, this is always conditional on quoting the source. It is recommended that the following statement be published alongside the document:
Permission for use granted by publisher.
The table
Conditions of re-use texts from electronic journals and e-books (in Dutch) indicates whether publishers with whom Utrecht University Library has entered into licence agreements permit the inclusion of texts without further costs.
Please note! These terms are subject to change. The list is regularly revised and updated. Please check the table any time you are planning a new reader to see if the conditions are still valid.
For further information, please contact Utrecht University Library.
Contact persons
Each department has a contact person for matters relating to copyright and the use of copyright-protected materials in education. These contact persons can answer questions on this topic and provide advice regarding invoices. They do not act as intermediaries for applications for permission to use material or for the payment of invoices to Stichting PRO.
Further reading
Disclaimer
Although the greatest possible care has been taken in the compilation of the contents of this web page, it remains possible that certain information may become outdated over time or may be incomplete. Utrecht University Library offers no guarantee that the information provided on this page is up to date or complete, and cannot under any circumstances be held liable for any direct or indirect loss arising from the use of the information provided on this page.