Copyright Guidelines for Staff & Students of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (WITS): Costs/DALRO B/Licence

Since 2005, the University has had a Blanket Licence Agreement with the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO) to streamline copyright clearance procedures.

The Blanket Licence is intended for the reprographic reproduction of supplementary reading, when the book or journal would in any case not have been bought, and it may not be used as a substitute for the purchase of prescribed books.

This applies to course-packs, electronic reserves, transient copies, conversions to Braille, Short loan copies, SAKAI/WebCT/Moodle or copies housed in School resource centres.

The bulk of copyright requests are cleared under the Blanket Licence.  The Blanket Licence requires Wits to pay a once-off invoice before the end of May each year.  It facilitates the clearance of copyright in that forms can be submitted retrospectively in the same year, as long as the set limits are not exceeded (i.e. 1 chapter or 10% of a book; one article from a journal issue; a full case study; a full law report).  This allows lecturers to prepare their teaching material without having to wait for copyright permission before it can be printed and distributed. It excludes non-FTE subsidised short courses though and these require transactional (individual) licences to be applied for through the same process on the Info-Ed (RIMS) copyright system.

Students are levied with a nominal copyright fee per annum, which pays for the Blanket Licence fee and other copyright fees that may be payable directly to rightsowners that are not mandated to DALRO.  

Copyright costs for short courses (non-FTE subsidised) are payable by individual Schools that use copyright material in their teaching material. Faculties/Schools therefore need to budget for copyright for these purposes.

All students are levied with a nominal copyright fee on an annual basis. 

This goes into the Central Copyright Fund for payment of the Blanket Licence and other permissions required during the year.

Reimbursement of this annual levy is only permitted in the following situations:

1. If a student deregisters within the first 3 weeks after registering, the full copyright fee will be reimbursed;
2. If a student registers solely for examination purposes, the full copyright fee will be reimbursed.

DALRO's invoice for the Blanket Licence is paid in the first quarter of each year from the Central Copyright Fund.  Items not mandated under the Blanket Licence (for FTE subsidised courses) are cleared by the Scholarly Communications Office, directly with rightsholders,  and payment is made from the Central Copyright Fund.

The Scholarly Communications Librarian is responsible for ensuring that the invoices are authorised and processed for payment by the Library Finance Department and Wits Main Finance Department.

For non-FTE subsidised Short Courses, this is the process:

The Scholarly Communications Librarian -

• submits the copyright requests to DALRO or the publisher, as the case may be, and requests a Quotation.
• sends Quotation to Faculty/School and requests a Purchase Order Number.
• sends Purchase Order Number to DALRO or publisher, and requests an original invoice.
• sends original invoice by hand to designated person in Faculty/School for authorisation.

The Faculty/School is required to -

• input copyright forms on the online copyright form available on this Website
• budget for copyright for non-FTE subsidised courses on an annual basis (can include copyright costs in course fees)
• confirm Quotations and provide Purchase Order Numbers, on request.
• authorise original Invoices and arrange for payment directly to DALRO or the publisher. as the case may be.