Associations and institutions are welcome to apply to become members of the ALCC.
Copyright warning notices are commonly used by libraries and archives. Find out more about them and how and when they are used.
Copyright notices are a common sight near photocopiers in libraries.
Photo: Loughborugh University Library. CC BY 2.0. Full attribution information below.
Copyright warning notices are used by libraries and archives in a number of client-facing situations. You can typically find them included with electronic materials supplied under a document supply request or displayed near photocopiers and other machines or devices on the library or archive premises that are capable of copying content.
In many cases the text of copyright warning notices, and other requirements related to those notices, are prescribed in the Copyright Regulations. This page provides more information copyright warning notices used in these situations, as well as notices displayed in other situations.
Copyright notices for display near copying machines
Photocopiers, printers, scanners, PCs and other devices capable of copying content are all examples of copying machines that you might find in a modern library or archive. To avoid authorisation liability for the use of copying machines by clients, libraries and archives should display a copyright warning notice on or in close proximity to copying machines. The wording of and form that these copyright notices should take are outlined in the regulation. There are three notices included in the regulations:
- Notice about the reproduction of works and the copying of published editions (Photocopier notice) – This notice is recommended where your library or archive only has copying machines capable of copying works or published editions of works (e.g. photocopiers). This notice may also be displayed where such copying machines are separate to other copying machines capable of copying audio-visual content (e.g. computers).
- Notice about the copying of audio‑visual items (Audio-visual notice) – This notice is recommended where your library or archive only has copying machines capable of copying audio-visual content. This notice may also be displayed where such copying machines are separate to other copying machines capable of copying works or published editions of works.
- Notice about the reproduction of works and the copying of published editions and audio‑visual items (Combined notice) – Because this notice includes the text for the two notices above it is recommended where your library has copying machines capable of copying works or published editions of works and audio-visual content. This notice may also be displayed where both types of copying machine are near each other (i.e. to avoid the need to display two notices).
When displaying any of the three notices above the notice must:
- Include the prescribed text (because the text is prescribed in the Copyright Regulations it should be reproduced exactly).
- Be at least A4-size (297 mm × 210 mm).
- Be affixed to, or displayed in close proximity to, the copying machine/s, in a place readily visible to persons using the machine.
Files
You can view the copyright warning notice templates online on Google Drive or download them in a number of formats: Portable Document Format (PDF), Word Document Office Open XML (DOCX), Word Document (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF) and OpenDocument Text Document (ODT).