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What’s with the box?

You may have seen boxes popping up near photocopiers lately with signs proclaiming what constitutes copyright material. These form part of the new copyright surveys Defence is participating in conducted by the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) to calculate the amount of copyright fee the Commonwealth needs to pay copyright owners.

By Lucy Merlino

As it’s not possible to record every time work covered by copyright is photocopied, CAL runs a series of 10-week surveys across various Commonwealth agencies and departments (but always including the big three – Defence, Tax and Centrelink) to get a representational view of what is being photocopied for work purposes. CAL then determines the rate to be paid by all Commonwealth agencies and which copyright owners require payment. Only copyright material not generated by the Commonwealth is included in these surveys.

Copyright Agency Limited

CAL was established in 1974 to represent the copyright material of authors, journalists, artists, illustrators and photographers. CAL has been appointed by the Attorney-General to administer a licence for the copying of copyright works by Commonwealth departments and agencies. This allows you to use the copyright material while encouraging the copyright owners in their work. CAL collects the licence fee (or royalty) from Commonwealth agencies for print copyright material copied ‘for the service of the Commonwealth’.

Copyright surveys in 2007

CAL has commissioned Taverner Research to conduct its upcoming surveys. There will be three CAL surveys requiring staff participation in 2007, which will be spread across Defence – you will most likely come into contact with one over the year.

  • The ‘Drop in the Box’ (DiB) survey collects data of what published material is being photocopied for work purposes in order to provide the copyright owner with the correct remuneration.
  • The ‘Copyright Count’ (CC) survey collects data on all the material being photocopied to determine the amount of copyright material being photocopied in relation to other photocopying.
  • The ‘Electronic Use’ survey collects data on the use of copyright material which is in electronic format.

Both the DiB survey and the CC survey are conducted over 20 sites (10 sites per survey) and last 10 weeks. Both will commence in February/March at a couple of sites with the other sites being staggered throughout the year at roughly 10-week intervals. The DiB survey will be conducted annually while the CC survey will be conducted on an as needed basis.

The Electronic Use survey is a new survey that CAL is still developing (you may have participated in the questionnaire in January which was used to collect data for this purpose). It will cover activities such as printing, saving, copying and pasting, reading. This survey may be aimed at particular sites which are expected to regularly use electronic copyright material.

Defence staff participation

CAL is taking a new streamlined approach to surveys and has redesigned the surveys to have minimal impact on the participants. For the DiB survey you simply make an extra copy of the photocopied item if the material is non-Commonwealth copyright material, write the number of times it was copied in the top corner and then drop that copy in a box – how easy is that?! The CC survey is as simple or even simpler – you only need to record whether what you photocopied is published or unpublished and the number of copies made.

Once a Defence site participates in a survey it will not be asked to participate in another survey unless the information from that site is essential to the survey being conducted. If you are required to participate in the survey you will be helping the Government meet its legal obligations to pay for copyright material it uses in carrying out its functions. You are also being fair to copyright owners whose work is reproduced for policy development, people management and a range of other Government activities by ensuring that the right copyright owners receive royalties for the use of their copyright material.

More information on the DiB survey is available on the CAL website at www.copyright.com.au/publicsurvey, or contact Lucy Merlino, Manager Recordkeeping Policy, on (02) 6265 6092.

Lucy Merlino works in Records Management Policy, Corporate Governance and Renewal Branch, CPA. The material for this article has been provided by Taverner Research, CAL and the CAL website.

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