Copyright: Information for Students

Information for Students

This information is a basic interpretation of copyright law and the licences the University is party to. It is not comprehensive and does not constitute legal advice.

How much can you photocopy?

Copyright law allows you to copy a limited amount of material without the permission of the copyright owner, but only for use in private study and you should make not more than one copy of a reasonable proportion of the material.

When the University makes photocopies of printed materials it has to stay within the following limits, and it is recommended that students do the same.

The proportion that can be photocopied is restricted to whichever is the greater of:

• 5% or one chapter of a book
• 5% or one article of a journal
• 5% or one paper of one set of conference proceedings
• 5% or one law report
• 5% of an anthology of short stories or poems or one short story or one poem of not more than 10 pages

If this does not cover what you want to do, look at our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)