Activities: Background to Dutch Courseware Fees


Collection of copyright fees for educational use in The Netherlands
IPRO represents the repertoire of international publishers for the collection and repartition of copyright compensations in The Netherlands and elsewhere. Copyright compensations for the educational use of copyrighted material in The Netherlands are subject to agreements between the Dutch Publishers Association de Mediafederatie and IPRO with the representatives of Dutch Higher Education Institutes. This concerns a compensation for copyrighted material used in coursepack readers and in educational modules, in print and digitally, as required under Dutch law, which allows for educational reuse against a proper financial compensation.
 
Agreement between Dutch Universities and Publishers
As part of a longstanding collaboration, the Dutch Universities, Higher Education Institutes and the publishers have agreed copyright compensation for the use of copyright protected material in courseware. In this way the publishers facilitate in a simple manner the easy re-use of copyright protected works for educational purposes. A collective agreement was agreed for the years 2017 - 2020 and was then extended for 2021 and 2022 to cover digital and print courseware inclusions and regards content that has not already been covered in other paid-for arrangements, such as direct licensing. For the years 2023- 2025 the Universities and the publishers (Dutch and those represented via IPRO) agreed a new and very similar arrangement.

With the HBO schools in The Netherlands, a collective agreement is in place for educational re-use spanning the years 2021 – 2024 which has been extended for the year 2025.

Compensation for Educational use in The Netherlands
Dutch copyright compensations for educational use at higher education institutes is based on article 16 in the Dutch copyright law and are collected on behalf of the rightsholders of the repertoire used. The collected copyright compensations are distributed among the rightsholders and their representatives of the repertoire used for educational purposes. The repertoire concerned is evident from: 

  • title specific registration
  • requests for approval
  • market research
  • on-site checks and inspections
  • usage data from institutions

IPRO's Repartition Regulations define the rules applied by the Board of IPRO in its repartition decisions. These regulations can be found here. 
 
How is the collection and distribution organised?
The Dutch Publishers Association de Mediafederatie and IPRO have commissioned the Uitgeversorganisatie voor Onderwijslicensies UvO and their administrative organisation CEDAR with implementing these reader agreements. The UvO Foundation (Publishers’ Collective Management Organization for Educational Licensing) is established jointly by the Dutch Publishers, organized in the Media Federatie (the Dutch Publishers Association) and IPRO, representing international publishers. Together with representatives of the main publishers in The Netherlands, IPRO is represented on the Board of UvO, see:  UvO Board.
 
The repartition process

  • Educational institutes pay the agreed copyright compensation to Stichting UvO, as the Dutch collecting collective management organization, who pays to IPRO the fees collected for the international repertoire used.
  • IPRO is responsible for paying the appropriate shares to STM rightsholders and to the relevant Reproduction Right Organisations (RRO’s): CCC, CLA, CFC and VG Wort. To this purpose these organisations have granted IPRO the rights to represent their repertoire and collect copyright compensation for their share.
  • Repartition payments are carried out along the rules of IPRO's Repartition Regulations and are based on a formal decision by the IPRO Board.
  • Terms and conditions for the educational use of copyright protected material can be found on the UvO website under this link, which also includes the terms of indemnification granted to the users who have agreed to pay the copyright compensation fees to Stichting UvO. The per-page tariffs can be found here. 
  • Please contact IPRO directly with any further questions regarding the repartition of educational courseware monies and if you believe you are a rightful representative of one of the relevant rightsholders.
  • A complaints and appeal procedure is available in case any conflicts arise and can be found here. For questions about invoices received from Stichting UvO, please follow the procedure under this link.
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