Amuse - AVCS Agreement

AVCS copyright - off-air broadcasting

Terms and conditions of the AVCS agreement

Under Part VA of the Copyright Act 1968 educational institutions are permitted to copy television and radio broadcasts provided, among other things, that they undertake to pay equitable remuneration for broadcasts copied. Sreenrights is a collecting society representing copyright owners of television and radio broadcasts, and film and sound recordings. The DSE pays AVCS an amount per student for off-air copying done by or on behalf of government schools in Victoria.

The Screenrights Agreement and the Copyright Act gives schools the right to copy radio and television broadcasts in the following manner:

a. a direct off-air copy of any radio or television broadcast
b. copies of any direct copy made of a television or radio broadcast.

Copies must be made solely for the educational purposes of your school or any other school. The term 'educational purposes' includes being made in connection with a particular course of instruction or for inclusion in the school library.

Schools may also pay television such as cable under this licence.

A copy must not be sold, but it may be loaned to a student. It may also be loaned or given away to another school, if that school is participating in the Screenrights Agreement. All government schools and most independent and catholic schools are participants.

Note: Schools are permitted to keep copies, made solely for educational purposes, of broadcasts transmitted before 1 July 1990. You are not permitted to make copies from these pre-1 July 1990 copies. Schools should mark these copies accordingly: 'Recorded before 1990 DO NOT COPY'.

Copying need not be done in school hours or on school property. Teachers may copy at home and so may students with the following proviso:

Marking of copies

All copies of broadcasts or the containers in which they are kept, must be marked as follows:

a. a reference to the Copyright Act Part VA
b. the name of the school for which the copy is made
c. the day on which the broadcast was copied
d. the day on which the copy was made, if this is different from the broadcast. For example:

No further records are required to be kept unless the school is selected as a sample school. Approximately 70 Victorian schools are sampled every two years and schools selected by a random statistical process must participate in full recordkeeping for one term.