Teachers’ Opposition to the Limit to Book Copying.

　Article 22 of the Copyright Law stipulates that authors have the exclusive right to reproduce their works. In addition, Article 46 of the same Law provides that all levels of legally established schools and their teachers may, within a reasonable scope and where necessary for the purpose of teaching in schools, reproduce the works of another person which have already been publicly released.

 

　Intellectual Property Office drew up the draft agreement on “reasonable scope of books copying necessary for the purpose of teaching in all levels of schools” to assist schools and educational institutions in reaching an agreement with copyright owner organization on the reasonable use of book copying necessary for teaching. This agreement can serve as a standard for the court’s determining the reasonable use in such cases. However, strong opposition arises from teachers in all levels of schools to this draft agreement. The National Teachers’ Association R.O.C indicated that book copying involved many aspects of factors including not only the local customs, national income, and educational expenditure of a country but also adequacy and sufficiency of the facilities in schools and the collections of community library, etc..

 

　The National Teachers’ Association R.O.C considers that the stipulation contained in this draft agreement is too rigid to be implemented in schools. For example, photocopy of the articles, poems (250 words as the maximum), stories (2500 words as the maximum), music, art, photography, and pictures of one author of a periodical shall not exceed 3 pieces for one course in one semester; likewise, photocopies of the works in one newspapers shall not exceed 15 pieces for one course in one semester. (2005.2)

CYJ/CCS