APPENDIX 80
Memorandum from the Copyright Licensing
Agency (CLA)
CONSTITUTION
The CLA is a not-for-profit company limited
by guarantee. It has two members, themselves also not-for-profit
companies: the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society Ltd (ALCS);
and the Publishers Licensing Society Ltd (PLS). Together with
the Design and Artists' Copyright Society Ltd (DACS), which has
a contractual arrangement with CLA, ALCS and PLS represent the
owners and other holders of copyright in most books, journals,
magazines and periodicals published in the United Kingdom.
ORIGINS
In 1977, the Whitford Report (Cmnd 6732) into
the law of copyright and designs recommended that photocopying
from books and journals should be licensed by a collecting society
controlled by rightsholders themselves. Following extensive discussions
between organisations representing authors and publishers, CLA
was incorporated in 1982. The government's own implementation
of the Whitford recommendations came with the enactment in 1988
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.
CURRENT OPERATIONS
CLA issues blanket licences which authorise
the photocopying and (increasingly) scanning of extracts from
books, journals and periodicals. Consultation and negotiation
with both user groups and rightsholders precedes the issue of
any new class of licence, with the aim of ensuring that licences
meet the reasonable needs of users consistent with respect for
the principles of copyright and without adversely affecting the
economic viability of the original publication (or its commercial
successors). Licensees are restricted to copying a maximum amount
of a given work, typically either five percent of the publication,
or one chapter, or in the case of a periodical, one, sometimes
two, articles from any issue, in connection with any single purpose
(such as, in an educational context, a course of study or, in
a commercial or research context, any occasion). Multiple copies
(eg class sets) of the same extract are permitted. Generally copies
are restricted to internal use within the licensed organisation
although there are exceptions such as document supply and press
cuttings (see below).
REPERTOIRE
Licensees are authorised to copy from any book,
journal, magazine or periodical published in the United Kingdom,
apart from a very few exceptions which are notified in advance.
Where CLA (or its member organisations) do not have the formal
authority from the copyright holder, the licensee remains authorised
by CLA which itself indemnifies the licensee. This approach was
noted and approved by the Government in its 1986 White Paper,
"Intellectual Property and Innovation" (Cmnd 9712),
and given statutory force in the form of section 136 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
DIGITAL EDITIONS
The CLA licence covers books, journals, magazines
and periodicals published in paper format but not, currently,
any electronic product such as CD-Rom or on-line publications.
Such digital products include an accompanying licence to authorise
normal usage; this "primary sale licence" can be adapted
to meet user requirements. Paper editions require no such primary
sale licence, hence a CLA licence is required to cover any uses
not permitted under any statutory exception to copyright.
FOREIGN WORKS
Many foreign works may also be copied under
a CLA licence, by virtue of reciprocal agreements between CLA
and similar organisations in other countries. Organisations like
CLA are known as Reproduction Rights Organisations (RROs) and
most are members of IFRRO, the International Federation of RROs.
IFRRO maintains close links with the World Intellectual Property
Organisation (WIPO). The CLA Chief Executive is currently the
President of IFRRO.
LICENSING
CLA has licensed the entire UK education sector,
most Government departments, many public bodies including the
NHS and most research-intensive industries of which the most significant
sector is the pharmaceutical sector.
Recent changes to copyright law as a result
of the implementation of Directive 2001/29/EC by SI 2498 of 2003
mean that most commercial organisations carrying out any photocopying
or scanning from published works (even for research if for a commercial
purpose) will now require a CLA licence.
DOCUMENT SUPPLY
& PRESS CUTTINGS
CLA has licensed the British Library and other
document supply organisations and libraries permitting the supply
of documents to third parties at rates set by the copyright holder.
CLA has also licensed Press Cuttings Agencies to supply copies
(in hard copy or electronic form) of cuttings from magazines,
periodicals and journals to their clients. These clients may make
further copies for internal circulation with their own CLA Licence.
FEE DISTRIBUTION
Over £200m has been distributed by CLA
to copyright holders since its establishment. Fee distribution
is determined by the results of a programme of surveys and other
data collection exercises. Many authors and publishers of the
most widely-copied material are in the academic, research and
not-for-profit sectors and CLA's licences are part of a significant
transfer of resources from the commercial to the academic sectors.
February 2004
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