Copying for private purposes
Copyright means that anyone who has created a work (a film, music, a book or a work of art, for instance) has an exclusive right to determine how the work may be used. This means that nobody is permitted to make copies of the work without the prior consent of the author. Neither is it permitted to make the work available to the public by posting it on the Internet, for instance, without the consent of the author. While this exclusive right implies, among other things, that it is the author who has the right to receive payment for use of the work, it is not without exceptions. The law in fact limits these rights in a number of ways, so that for instance in some cases the work may be copied freely, i.e. without obtaining consent. The exception that relates to copying for private purposes is one of the most important.
The provision on copying for private purposes means that, as a general rule, anyone is allowed to make one or a few copies of a work for himself or herself, for the family and for his or her friends. This is not always the case, however. It is, for instance, not permitted to make copies of computer programs (though special provisions apply to back-up copies).
Special provisions apply to copying in workplaces, in schools and in libraries.
Copying of books
It is, in principle, no longer permitted to copy entire books. This also applies to educational literature. It is, however, still permitted to copy limited parts of a literary work, for instance some chapters of a book, or a literary work of limited scope, such as a poem or a short story.
