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• Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008

• Submissions Received

Date Received: 2003-02-19

Original version: Digital Copyright: Position Paper Submissions: No. 12: Ministry of Education [107 kB PDF]
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19th February 2003

Dear Victoria,

Re: Digital Technology and the Copyright Act 1994-Position Paper

We refer to the letter dated 17th December 2002 from Mark Steel, Deputy Secretary, to Howard Fancy, the Secretary of Education regarding the above position paper.

On behalf of the Ministry of Education we make the following submissions:

1. For the purposes of fair dealing under paragraph 160(b) of the position paper we are of the view that transient copies should be excluded from application under section 43(4) of the Copyright Act 1994. This will give students and teaching staff certainty when relying on this provision for research and private study purposes.

2. With regard to the issues raised in paragraph 162 of the position paper we comment as follows:

1. Libraries at educational institutions should be able to digitise material for preservation purposes.
2. Educational institutions and libraries should be able to make available, and communicate copyright material in digital format.
3. For the smooth operation of libraries at educational institutions they should be able to inter loan by digital means.
4. We are also of the view that educational institutions should be able to cache web pages for teaching purposes in terms of section 44 of the Act.

3. Further issues in relation to section 44 of the Act:

1. How would schools know that they have permission to copy from the internet?
2. What if the copyright notice on a webpage says that the educational institution cannot make a copy. Given that there are exceptions in the Act in certain circumstances for copying this may need clarification.
3. The section states that in certain circumstances educational establishments can copy no more than 3 per cent of a work, or 3 pages of the work or edition. How does this apply to the digital environment? What is a work on the Internet? Is a work a web site or a webpage?

The Ministry is of the view that any clarification to assist educational establishments in copying within the limits of the Act will be helpful. This also applies to section 48 of the Act relating to recording by educational establishments of broadcasts and cable programmes if extended to the digital environment.

4. Generally the Ministry is of the view that the education sector will seek to take advantage of digital technologies and the global information infrastructure through the development and exchange of course materials in digital form. This will include the provision of online distance educational materials. We are also of the view that technological neutrality should be the objective of the law reform exercise.

Yours sincerely,

Bruce Moorhead
Chief Information Officer
Ministry of Education.