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Texts (books, periodicals, plays, sheet music)

Swinburne University pays a Part VB licence fee which allows Swinburne staff to copy and communicate “reasonable portions” of texts for educational purposes without seeking permission from the copyright owner. Copying limits and requirements are discussed below.

How much can I copy?

Books (literary), plays (dramatic) and sheet music (musical)

  • A book, play, or musical work must be 10 or more pages in length.
    10% or one chapter (whichever is the greater) of a published edition can be copied or communicated.

    You can copy or communicate 10% of the number of pages or one chapter (if the work is divided into chapters), whichever is the greater, from a hardcopy published edition.

    You can copy or communicate 10% of the number of words or one chapter in the edition, whichever is the greater, from an electronic published edition.

  • Periodical Publications (journals, newspapers etc)
    You can copy or communicate one article from any issue of a periodical publication. More than one article can be copied or communicated from a single issue if the articles relate to the same subject matter.
  • Individual works in an anthology
    You can copy or communicate the whole of a literary or dramatic work in an anthology if that work is no more than 15 pages.
  • Illustrations, images, diagrams contained in a work
    You can copy or communicate artistic works together with the text they explain or illustrate. See the images web page for more information.
  • Out of print works
    You can copy or communicate the whole of an out of print work if it is unavailable within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price. The Library can help determine if the work is available.

Who do the limits apply to?

When communicating reasonable portions of a work (other than an article contained in a periodical publication), the limit applies to the university as a whole. Therefore, the university can only make a reasonable portion of a work available online if no other part of the same work is made available at the same time.

Subject Materials

The Library's Subject Materials service is used to centrally manage the communication of copyright work under the Part VB licence.You must use Subject Materials to make copyright material available online for students.

Notice requirements when copying texts

Electronic copies must have a standard copyright notice displayed immediately before or at the same time as the texts.

For further information contact the Copyright Office.