The CLA licence: a refresher

The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) licence for photocopying, scanning and digital re-use is a bit of a mouthful.  It is also, currently, the most straightforward way for lecturers to stay within the law when re-using copyright-protected materials in their courses.

A CLA poster is displayed next to MFDs at every UCL library site and in departments. This is expected by the CLA and helps users know what they are allowed to do under the terms of the licence. Below are a few main points about the licence; you may want to highlight them to staff.

• The CLA is a not-for-profit company that distributes its revenue to authors, publishers and visual artists via royalty-collecting organisations.
• Like many other Universities, UCL pays an annual subscription to the CLA. The library also takes part in discussions and consultations that inform negotiations with the agency, to ensure that the licence meets the needs of the academic community.
•  Works covered by the licence mainly include books and journal publications published in the UK. Many overseas publications are also included. Not everything is covered: which countries and publications are covered and what is allowed in every case varies, particularly scanning permissions. For a work to be covered, UCL must own a copy or subscribe to the publication.
• There are limits to how much can be copied. Currently these are one chapter from a book, one whole article from a journal issue or 10% of the book or journal issue; whichever is the greatest. The CLA guidance and displayed poster specify limits for other types of materials.
• Any member of staff or student at UCL can copy under the terms of the licence. However, for copies made for students on a particular course, there are additional storing and reporting requirements and it is designated members of staff that do the scanning and ensure the requirements are met. For course readings, lecturers are advised to add the resources they need to their reading lists, specifying which extracts they wish to digitise. The TLS team checks what is permitted and, where possible, digitises the resource under the terms of the licence. More information can be found on the Course Readings webpage.

Beyond the CLA licence

While the CLA is useful for digitising print books, there is a growing number of resources that do not require digitisation.  Staff and students can access a wide range of  electronic resources, including journal articles and e-books – lecturers can provide links to their students. Users can also benefit from exceptions in copyright law, which allow users to copy and share reasonable extracts from materials, without the need for permission, as long as the use is ‘fair dealing‘.

And, of course, there is the ever-growing body of open access resources, including those held in UCL Discovery or published by UCL Press. Generally, if a resource is licensed under a Creative Commons licence it can be used without permission, as long as the terms of the licence are met.

Further advice

• You can refer CLA-related questions to me at copyright@ucl.ac.uk. As the CLA licence coordinator, I can answer questions and liaise with the CLA if necessary.
• For more information on copyright more generally, including the use of exceptions and open licences, you can e-mail me, book an appointment or attend a training session.