What is the exception for reprography?

Like in other European countries, the Belgian Copyright Act of 30 June 1994 introduces an exception for reprography. For rights holders it is too expensive or practically impossible to negotiate individual exploitation licenses and to monitor the general practice of copying their work.

In this way, the Copyright Act legalises a practice that meets the requirement to protect privacy at the same time as guaranteeing the general public interest in the form of education, culture and distribution of information. The law also simultaneously protects the interests of authors and publishers against potential damage by the practice of copying. The law provides for a delicate balance between the interests of users and those of rights holders.

The basic principle remains that for every reproduction of a protected work, explicit permission is required in advance from the rights holder. Nevertheless, the Copyright Act exceptionally allows people to copy protected works without this explicit permission. However, this is subject to strict conditions and to payment of an equitable remuneration to the rights holders.

• The Copyright Act authorises the copying of an article, photograph, illustration or short fragment of a book if it is a natural or moral person who is making the copy exclusively for private use or for internal professional use or as illustration in the context of education or for scientific research.
• Copying short fragments of sheet music is only allowed as illustration in the context of education or for scientific research.
• Copying for the purposes of illustration in the context of education or for scientific research is only allowed insofar as it is justified by the intended and non-profit-generating purpose.

Under no circumstances may reproduction prejudice the normal exploitation of the work. Thus, it remains prohibited to copy complete or long fragments of publications (such as a book, newspaper or magazine) without permission in advance from the rights holder. That also applies for short fragments of a book, photographs or articles reproduced in multiple copies, if the number of copies is large enough to cause damage to the rights holder.