Playing recorded music in class
Music and other sound recordings may be played in lectures and tutorials.
Fortunately for educational institutions, there is a provision in the Copyright Act in section 28 that deems performances in the course of educational instruction not to be in public, so long as the audience is limited to those taking part in the instruction. This means that CDs can be played in class without the permission of the copyright owner. Of course, only a legitimately acquired recording can be played.
Copying recordings
QUT staff are now able to reproduce and communicate for educational purposes an extensive repertoire of musical sound recordings without having to obtain prior permission from the individual copyright holders.
Although there are no provisions in the Copyright Act that permit you to copy sound recordings for teaching purposes, QUT is party to the Tertiary Music Licence agreement, which allows participating universities, subject to certain conditions, to reproduce and communicate copyright musical works and sound recordings for educational purposes and to perform them at University events. This agreement was negotiated in 2005 between the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee (AVCC) and the various music copyright collecting societies.
Musical copyrights are complex, with rights existing in the composition, the performance, and the recording of a work. Under the agreement QUT pays an annual licence fee to the four music collecting societies who control different components of the copyrights. The four societies between them administer the rights for about 95% of recorded music available in Australia. The four societies are:
- Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA)
- Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS)
- Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA)
- Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA)
Copying recorded music for teaching purposes
Under the Tertiary Music Licence, the University may copy music sound recordings within the repertoire of AMCOS and ARIA. The licence does not cover the copying of music videos.
Both AMCOS and ARIA are involved because there are two copyrights in the recorded music:
- the reproduction right in the musical composition, controlled by AMCOS; and
- the reproduction right in the sound recording, controlled by ARIA.
ARIA record labels are listed on the ARIA web site at http://www.aria.com.au/pages/documents/sound_recording_label_list.pdf .
Any recordings under these labels may be copied. If the recording you wish to copy is not on one of these labels, please contact the University Copyright Officer.
The following conditions apply:
- The source recording must be a legitimate copy, not an infringing one.
- The copying must be for educational purposes associated with a course of study or research
- The copies can only be made available to QUT students or staff
- The materials must carry the required warning notice and label
It is not necessary under the terms of the licence to keep records of copies made.
Distributing copies made for teaching purposes
The copied recordings may be distributed on CD or DVD to students, deposited in the library for student access, or placed on a server for student listening. Access must be restricted to QUT staff and students. The University must not make them available online in a downloadable format but streaming is permitted. Each year, the University is required to report the sound recordings available on the streaming facility as of 1 October, which requires some record-keeping.
Physical copies and streamed music files must carry the Tertiary Music Licence notice and descriptive label. The notice and label requirements are available at Warning Notices.
The CDs or DVDs may be sold to students so long as the price is set to recover costs only.
If you wish to stream music, contact the University Copyright Officer before proceeding.
If you are contemplating using music for a video, audio, stage or multimedia production or providing music for student films, contact the University Copyright Officer as to how to proceed. Some uses of this kind may be covered by the Tertiary Music Licence.
Infringing copies of recorded music
There is a lot of music available on the internet. Unfortunately, much of it is illegal, in the sense that the people offering it are not the legitimate owners, and have no authority to make copies available to you or to sell them to you. If you are found to have illegal music files on your computer, you could face disciplinary action for a breach of the University’s Information Facilities Rules. You should understand that sound recordings made or copied under the Tertiary Music Licence for the educational purpose of QUT must not be used or copied for other purposes. For your own protection, you would be wise to have some form of identification or separate storage of these copies. Strict adherence to the notice and labelling requirements should assist.