From January 1st, 2023, the new Easy Access Agreement for reusing copyrighted materials in education will be in effect. The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (UNL) and the Publisher Organization for Educational Licenses (UvO) have reached an agreement for 2023-2025. This agreement will make it easier for teachers and students to use books and articles necessary for education.
An important change in the new Easy Access Agreement is that teachers now can use up to forty pages from copyrighted publications, provided it is no more than 20% of the original work. This is a reduction compared to the old agreement where up to fifty pages could be used. The definition of a short exerpt has been increased to a maximum of 25 pages.
UNL and UvO are currently working together on a model where universities will eventually pay based on actual use.
Starting the new academic year, teachers are expected to comply with the new agreement. The general advice to link to material on Canvas (when possible) remains. If it is necessary to share a small part of a document, we advise to not use more than 40 pages for copyrighted work. It is advised to look for alternatives for copyrighted educational material over 40 pages. If you do want to use more pages of copyrighted work for your course, a request must be submitted through UvO. Using copyrighted work (more than 40 pages) is not advised and is at your own risk.
Further information can also be found on Copyright.
