Do you teach at a university?

You may copy by any means and from all materials – both books, sheet music, song lyrics, journals, websites and newspapers.

You may always copy up to 4 pages from each material, irrespective of its total number of pages. For example, from a 6-page booklet, you may copy 4 pages, even though this exceeds 20 percent of the total number of pages.

When copying, always remember to state the source, i.e. title, author(s), publisher and year of publication. This applies to digital copies as well as photocopies.

The agreement covers:

When you photocopy or scan books, magazines, newspapers, sheet music, song lyrics, articles, etc.
When you print content from the Internet. Websites are also protected by copyright, and you may print text, articles, blogs, studies, reports, etc.
When you display text-excerpts in digital presentation tools like PowerPoint and on interactive whiteboards or projectors.
When you download or copy-paste material and then upload it/store it on a password-protected intranet or drive.

Find a standard agreement here

Download poster with guide here

You may copy from all texts and sheet music. Just remember 20 % no more than 50 pages per student per semester.

The framework for copying and sharing

A few things to keep in mind when copying.

There is a limit to how much you may copy of a material. You may copy 20 %, no more than 50 pages per student per semester.
The material may not be used on websites or for marketing purposes – this requires a separate agreement with the relevant rights holders.
The agreement only covers copying in Denmark.

A few things to keep in mind when it comes to sharing your copies.

You can share the copies with your students in several ways:

as handouts in class
digitally via Smartboards, Teams, Zoom, etc.
digitally via shared folder options like OneNote or Microsoft, on E-learning platforms, or on the university’s intranet.

It is not possible to share the copies:

with people outside your own educational institution’s teachers, lecturers, and students.
via e-mail, websites, or social media. Not even in closed or professional groups.

How about license agreements and subscriptions?

Our copying agreement gives access to all kinds of texts and sheet music. However, if your university has purchased access to text and sheet music material via license agreements or subscriptions, or if you access material from a licensing service (e.g. via a library), then the situation may be different.

We therefore encourage you to read the terms of those licenses to see which conditions for copying are already included in your licenses and subscriptions. They must be followed before our agreement.

If no decision has been made regarding copying in the terms of use, you may copy according to our agreement.

Common Questions

: You may copy 20 %, no more than 50 pages per student per semester.

It may sometimes be difficult to determine the total number of pages for a material. Below, we have included a couple of examples of how to find the total number of pages.

A book: The total number of pages in the book is the number of pages you use to calculate the 20 percent, no more than 50 pages.

A journal: 20 percent, no more than 50 pages of the total volume for the year in question, i.e. your calculation is based on all issues of the journal published in the calendar year in question, not only on the individual issue of the journal.

A website: If the file is a separate file, e.g. a PDF file uploaded to a website, the 20 percent, no more than 50 pages is based on the total number of pages in the file.

If the pages are ordinary content pages on a website, it may be difficult to determine the number of pages on which to base the 20 percent, no more than 50 pages. The general rule is that you may use what corresponds to 50 printed pages.

An anthology: An anthology, i.e. a collection of works, e.g. a collection of poems, a songbook or a collection of scientific articles, is considered to be one work. This means that you may copy 20 percent, no more than 50 pages based on the total number of pages in the anthology. In this context the poem is not considered to be an individual work. Therefore, the number of pages to be used in the calculation is the number of pages in the anthology as a whole.

Pictures: Pictures used in connection with text in the material may be copied. In this case pictures are regarded as ordinary pages of text.

However, you may not “cut away” the text so that the pictures are isolated in the copies. In other words, pictures must be copied along with the text in which they appear.

: If you have written and developed compendia, PowerPoint presentations, assignments, texts, and the like for your students, you are free to copy such material. However, if you enclose text material from other sources (from books, websites, etc.) in said material, you must follow the 20 percent, no more than 50 pages rule for this material and also state the source.

If you have developed material that has been published, such material is, of course, protected by the Danish Copyright Act.

Students are also covered by the university agreement and may copy according to the same guidelines as mentioned above.

We meet the students’ copy needs when they copy for:

educational purposes – for instance, when they make photocopies for distribution or digital copies to be uploaded to the university’s intranet.
use in their assignments/papers.

: All of Denmark’s universities report back to us on what they copy.

In close collaboration with us, the different universities have all chosen their own method of reporting.

You can read more about reporting here.

If you are in doubt as to how your university reports, you can ask your university’s contact person or contact:

Susanne Beck Andersen – Researcher: sba@tekstognode.dk / 35 44 14 65

More about the agreement or invoicing?

Call: 3544 14 93
Write: hgk@tekstognode.dk

The framework for copying and sharing

How about license agreements and subscriptions?

Common Questions

How do I calculate the total number of pages for a material?

May I copy material written by myself?

Can my students make copies?

How do I report my copies?

More about the agreement or invoicing?