e-Readers
To reproduce or make public someone else’s work, you need the prior permission of the copyright holder. However, Article 16 of the Dutch Copyright Act makes an exception for the use of copyrighted work in educational publications, such as readers or e-readers.
Short extract
This means that you do not need permission as long as you reproduce no more than a short extract* from a copyrighted work. There are two conditions for using such extracts without permission:
- you are required to register this use with the copyright holder, and
- to pay reasonable compensation for it.
Agreements have been drawn up between publishers associations and educational institutions that regulate how large an extract you may use without permission, how much this will cost, and how you need to register this use.
The PRO Foundation (the Dutch publication and reproduction rights organisation, or Stichting PRO) collects the compensation for using copyrighted material in readers on behalf of the publishers. To minimise the administrative burden for the parties involved, annual compensation agreements have been made for the use of short extracts* of copyrighted material, based on the number of students involved.
However, the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) terminated the latest agreement as per 1 January 2011. This means the right to use copyrighted extracts in readers (or digitally on the intranet) has formally lapsed unless the institution pays a reasonable fee for this use.
To save universities from now having to register and pay the PRO Foundation or individual publishers separately for each short extract, the relevant parties have agreed to provisionally continue the previous arrangements for readers. At the same time, these parties have expressed a strong desire to reach an appropriate reader agreement as soon as possible.
Longer extracts
The fees for using longer (‘non-short’) extracts are not included in the compensation agreements. For such extracts, the educational institution is required to request separate permission and to pay for this use separately. The PRO Foundation regularly monitors all readers produced by higher education institutions, and additional invoices are drawn up if longer extracts are found to have been used without permission.
* In brief, a ‘short extract’ is:
- a maximum of 10,000 words from a non-literary book, with the added condition that this constitutes no more than one third of the original work
- a maximum of 2500 words from literary writings or 100 lines of poetry
- a maximum of 8000 words from journals, with the added condition that this constitutes no more than one third of the work concerned.
More information
You can find more information about requesting permission, invoicing, registering the use of extracts, etc. on the PRO Foundation website: www.stichting-pro.nl [Dutch]
- Can anyone copy my work into e-readers or a collection of cuttings?
You are entitled to fair remuneration for the use of your work. The PRO Foundation, or the foundation that promotes your rights, will collect the fee and pass it on to you.- Copying longer passages requires prior permission at all times.
- Short passages or pieces of work, such as e-readers, may be copied without prior permission in publications for teaching purposes. In that case the user is obliged to report the copying of short passages to the PRO Foundation. (Note that separate rules apply to the use of e.g. sheet music or graphics.)
- Where should I, as an author, go if I may be entitled to remuneration?
If you published your work with a publisher, we refer you to the relevant publisher. If you published your work under your own management, you should consult the webpage of the foundation that represents you as the originator of the publication.
(Source: www.stichting-pro.nl, January 2009) [Dutch].
You can find more information on the PRO Foundation website: www.stichting-pro.nl [Dutch].
