KopinorNews 2002-2

Kopinor News
No. 2 Volume 6 Summer 2002
ISSN 1500-0729

REPROGRAPHIC REPRODUCTION:

New agreement for universities and colleges concluded

The earlier four-year agreement expired on 30 June 2002. During the early hours of 2 July, the Norwegian Council for Higher Education (NCHE) and Kopinor, after extremely difficult negotiations, concluded a new model agreement for public and private universities and colleges. It is expected that all institutions will sign the agreement.

Remuneration
Based on the results of a new statistical survey (see below), and a per page price of approx. € 0.06, remuneration is to be paid in the following manner in the coming academic year: € 36.39 (NOK 270.38) per employee, € 39.06 (NOK 290.20) per university student and € 34.13 (NOK 253.55) per college student. (Exchange rate as of 30 June 2002.) The remuneration will thereafter be adjusted annually according to the cost of living index.

Total remuneration expected in the coming academic year is € 7.81 m (NOK 58 m), compared to € 6.86 in the previous year.

Two-year agreement
The previous model agreement had a duration of four years. The new agreement covers two years, but will continue for four-year periods unless terminated by either party.

Co-operation agreement
In addition, NCHE and Kopinor have for the first time signed a direct co-operation agreement, which governs the relationship between the two parties in regard of communication, information to the institutions, the terms of the next statistical survey of reprographic reproduction, etc. While the next survey had been planned in 2005 it has been agreed to conduct the survey two years earlier in 2003.

Difficult negotiations
The negotiations this time proved to be extremely difficult. One reason was, in Kopinor’s view, that most members of NCHE’s negotiating team were taking part in the negotiations on a reprographic license for the first time. In addition, the NCHE team called in doubt the results of the survey which NCHE and Kopinor jointly had conducted. Another complicating factor was the imminent amendment of the Copyright Act, implementing the EU Copyright Directive. Kopinor expects changes in regard of the scope of Section 12 of the Act, which deals with permitted copying for private use. (There is no remuneration scheme in Norway for private copying today.)

Scientific journal articles
Kopinor’s licenses cover all reproduction of published works on paper, including by way of computer print-outs. However, print-outs of scientific journal articles created a special problem during the negotiations. It had been the intention of the parties to review possible site licenses for journals in digital form held by the institutions taking part in the survey to discover to what degree such print-outs were authorised by licenses issued by (mostly foreign) publishers. Time did not allow such a review, and it was agreed to regard all journal print-outs as licensed by and paid for directly to the publisher.

Mediation
In May, when the negotiations were about to break down completely, Kopinor, as provided for in the Copyright Act, called for mediation by the State Mediator. He insisted on concentration on the text of the agreement, and deliberately postponed discussions on remuneration. With his help all main differences regarding the text were ironed out. However, when the issue of payment came up, views differed to such an extent that he terminated the mediation on 26 June without proposing any solution.

Offer of arbitration
Without a new agreement in place, all copying of copyright protected material not allowed by law or through direct agreement with the individual rightsholder, would have to be halted in all universities and colleges beginning 1 July. To avoid a conflict which dramatically would disrupt academic life, Kopinor offered to let the issue of remuneration be determined by arbitration. NCHE clearly did not find this tempting, and finally, at 1.10 am on 2 July the new agreement was concluded.

Private copying
One important element in the solution was that Kopinor accepted to reduce the total volume of protected copies to be paid for by 10 %. It was agreed to regard the 10 % as private copying permitted under Section 12 of the Copyright Act. This equals an annual reduction in the remuneration from universities and colleges by approx. NOK 6 m (€ 810,000).

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2002:

2001 results: € 22.9 m

Rønning re-elected

The annual general meeting of Kopinor was held on April 11. Professor Helge Rønning was re-elected as Chairman of Kopinor’s Board of Directors.

The financial statement for the year 2001 was presented and approved. The statement showed that collections in 2001 totalled NOK 182,4 m (€ 22.9 m at the exchange rate as of 31.12.01, or € 5.09 per capita), up from 179.6 m in 2000. About 20 % of the remuneration collected in Norway came from the copying of foreign works. Running costs amounted to 10.2 % of total income, up from 7.2 % in 2000. The low percentage for 2000 was due to the extra NOK 56 m for school copying and NOK 6.7 m for copying in Sweden 1981–2000 received that year, giving a total income in 2000 of NOK 242.3 m.

NEW STATISTICAL SURVEYS:

Higher education survey

The survey in universities and colleges concluded in May 2002 showed a total volume of copies (including printouts) of 428 m pages for the whole sector, out of which 167 m pages were of published copyright protected material (but excluding print-outs of scientific journals, see previous article). 83.7 % of the protected copies were from textbooks and non-fiction books. Foreign material amounted to 46.3 %. 1238 students and 405 staff members participated in the survey. In addition, data on the total volume of copying was collected from all universities and colleges. Average number of protected copies per year per student came to 778 copy-pages, per scientific staff 1419 pages, and per technical staff 96 pages. The data collection took place in 2000/2001.

Survey in the Church of Norway

The results of the first ever statistical survey of reprographic reproduction conducted in the Norwegian Lutheran State Church were announced in May 2002. Data had been collected over a 12 month period in 2000/2001, 235 parishes (out of a total of 855) had participated. The total volume registered amounted to 28.4 m copy-pages. 6.8 m copy-pages were of published, protected material, out of which 56.1 % were of church publications, 31.4 % were of general non-fiction books, and 7.2 % from songbooks. A higher per page price is paid for copies of sheet music, compared to other categories of publications. Remuneration for 2002 for the Church of Norway amounts to NOK 3.5 m (€ 470,000).

STAFF NEWS:

• Elin Urkedal, Director of Administration and Distribution, began her maternity leave on 1 July. From that date Kopinor’s Senior Statistician Helge Jagland, functions in her position. Licensing Officer Greg Resar will from the same date assist Jagland with survey work.

Editor: John-Willy Rudolph
August 2002