Copyright licenses
A copyright license grants the license holder the right to exercise such rights as are granted through a license agreement e.g. a license may be granted to reproduce the pages of a book but the owner of the copyright remains the owner of the rights in question e.g. to reproduce the pages of a book. Also, consider:
- DALRO makes access to published work easy and affordable through licensing.
- Reserved works: Blanket licensing to Higher Education Institutions allows numbers of students and professional employees, who would not, in any case, have bought the published work, to lawfully gain access to a photocopied extract form the work.
- E-copy: If you want to create a digital edition of a work and you are not the owner of the copyright, you have to get permission from the copyright owner.
- Out-of-print: Out of print does not mean “out-of-copyright” because even if a book is out of print and the author does not generate income from its sales, they might still generate income via translation rights, film rights or photocopying.
- Maps, drawings and pictures are “artistic works” in the Copyright Act and are also copyright protected.
- Images on the Internet: Even if the owner of the website has a license to use the image, it does not automatically extend to you as a visitor to his / her site.
- Intellectual property: If you write a book in South Africa, copyright arises automatically.
- Duration: In SA copyright protection in literature, music and artistic works lasts for the life of the author and 50 years after his death (multiple authors – 50 years after the longest living author died).
Fair dealing
Fair use or fair dealing is provided for in a section of the SA Copyright Act. As long as your copy does not deprive the rights holder of income, your actions are legal. Making multiple copies of a copyright-protected work, however, falls outside fair dealing. Fair dealing allows:
- copying for research and study as much of a work to meet reasonable needs without seeking permission from the copyright owner and paying compensation
- quoting from a copyright-protected work provided the source, author or copyright owner is acknowledged
- using a work for the purpose of criticism, review or for reporting current events in a newspaper, journal or magazine