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Copyright · last updated 30 August 2026

Copyright and permissions

The short version

Please do not photocopy the Playbook for a class. Not mainly because of the law — because a photocopy of a punch-out token sheet has no punch-out tokens in it, and the tokens are the book. Ring the Ernakulam office instead and ask about bulk pricing; that conversation is easier than you think.

Quoting a short passage with attribution, linking to any page here, showing a page to your class, or printing a page of this website for your own use — all fine, no permission needed.

This page was written for this site rather than carried over from the previous one, and it has not yet been reviewed by a lawyer.

Can a school photocopy the Playbook?

No, and the reason is practical before it is legal. The Language of Chemistry, Playbook® is a consumable book. Two sheets of tokens are punched out of it and handled; nineteen exercises are written in and marked against the answers enclosed at the back; the evaluation chart is filled in as a student goes. A photocopy carries none of that. A class working from photocopied sheets is doing a different and worse exercise than the one the book sets, which is why one copy per student is how it is designed and priced.

A school that cannot buy a copy for every student should ring us rather than photocopy. There is bulk pricing, a free sample copy for any school that asks, and the office would far rather find a number that works than have the method taught badly from a photocopy.

The teaching exception, stated fairly

Section 52(1)(i) of the Copyright Act, 1957 permits the reproduction of a work by a teacher or a pupil in the course of instruction, and the Delhi High Court has read that exception broadly — a publisher who tells you the law flatly forbids all classroom copying is overstating its own position, and we are not going to do that.

What we will say is that the exception was not written to let a school avoid buying a consumable workbook, and that a class set of photocopies made instead of a purchase is not a teaching aid, it is a substitute for the product. If you are unsure which side of that line something falls on, ask us — a permission request has never cost anyone anything and we answer them.

Playway Books Pvt Ltd owns the copyright in The Language of Chemistry, Playbook®, ISBN 978-81-959241-0-3, first published in 1996 as Metro Kits, Kit–I — the text, the two charts, the activities and exercises, the token sheets and the design of the tokens themselves, the evaluation chart, and the arrangement of all of them, which is the part that took thirty years. The same applies to this website: its copy, its markup, its stylesheets and its layout.

Playbook® is a registered mark. The three typefaces this site uses — Archivo, Literata and IBM Plex Mono — are third-party works under the SIL Open Font Licence, and their licences ship with the fonts.

You do not need to ask for any of this

  • Quoting a short passage from the book or the site, with the title and the author named.
  • Linking to any page here. No permission, no fee, no conditions.
  • Showing a page of the book to a class you are teaching, from the copy you own.
  • Printing a page of this website for your own reference, or saving it to read offline.
  • Reviewing the book, quoting from it in the review, and photographing your own copy for that review.

These need permission first

  • Copying any part of the book for more than one person — a class set, a department set, a coaching batch.
  • Reproducing the token sheets, the charts or the exercises in any form, including redrawing them.
  • Uploading a scan, a photograph of a spread, or a PDF of any part of the book anywhere.
  • Including any part of it in a course pack, a question bank, a worksheet or teaching material you distribute.
  • Translating or adapting it, into another language or into an app, a video or a slide deck.
  • Using the Playway Books name or the Playbook mark on anything you publish or sell.

How to ask

Write to learn@playwaybooks.com or ring +91 484 2405580. Tell us what you want to use, how much of it, how many people will see it, and whether anyone is being charged. Requests from teachers are the ones we are quickest with.

If you find it copied

Scans of this book turn up on file-sharing sites and in coaching material. If you see one, please tell us where — learn@playwaybooks.com — and if you can, send the link. A publisher this size finds out from readers or not at all.

This site hosts nothing that a third party has posted, so it is not an intermediary and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 do not apply to it. The address above is published anyway, because someone reporting an infringement should not have to work out who to write to.

Listed because a school’s legal or procurement desk asks, and because a publisher that can name the ground it stands on is easier to buy from. This is a description of the framework, not legal advice.

The statutes that govern this book, this company and this website.
Act or rules What it governs here
The Copyright Act, 1957 The Playbook is a literary work with artistic elements. Section 14 reserves reproduction, adaptation, translation and issuing copies to the owner; section 51 makes doing any of them without licence an infringement; section 52 sets out the exceptions, including the one for teaching discussed above; section 63 makes knowing infringement a criminal offence. Copyright subsists for the author’s lifetime and sixty years from the start of the year following their death.
The Trade Marks Act, 1999 Playbook® is a registered mark. “Playway Books” and the Playway Books wordmark are used as marks in the course of trade. Section 29 governs their infringement, and the common law of passing off applies alongside it.
The Indian Contract Act, 1872 The terms of use of this site, and any order placed directly with the Ernakulam office.
The Sale of Goods Act, 1930 A copy sold directly by Playway Books, including a school’s bulk order.
The Consumer Protection Act, 2019, and the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 A copy bought from Amazon or Flipkart is sold by that platform, and those Rules bind it as the e-commerce entity. They reach Playway Books as a seller in respect of what is said about the book — which is why nothing on this site claims a result it cannot document.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 The schools enquiry form is the only place this site collects personal data. What is collected, why, and how to have it erased are set out in the privacy policy. Section 9 governs the data of anyone under eighteen, which is why this site asks a school or a parent for an enquiry and never a student.
The Information Technology Act, 2000 Electronic records and signatures, and sections 43 and 66 on unauthorised access to a computer resource — which is what the acceptable-use clause in the terms is written against.
The Companies Act, 2013 Playway Books Pvt Ltd is incorporated in Kerala. CIN U22220KL2022PTC074201.
The Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, and the Kerala State GST Act, 2017 An invoice for a direct or bulk order is raised under these. GSTIN 32AAMCP6989J1ZN.
The Delivery of Books and Newspapers (Public Libraries) Act, 1954 The obligation on a publisher to deliver a copy of each book published to the National Library at Kolkata within thirty days, and a copy to each of the three other public libraries the Act names.

Governing law

This page, the terms and conditions and any dealing with Playway Books Pvt Ltd are governed by the laws of India. The courts at Ernakulam, Kerala have jurisdiction.

Permissions, bulk pricing and sample copies are all the same desk in Ernakulam, and a person answers the phone on weekdays.

Request a sample copy for your school

Talk to us

Playway Books Pvt Ltd
43/2153 E1, Jewel Homes, Whitefield, SRM Road, Lissie Junction
Ernakulam, Kerala, India — 682018
CIN
U22220KL2022PTC074201
GSTIN
32AAMCP6989J1ZN