Check Permissions - copying from editions published in the USA

CLA's agreement with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), the Reproduction Rights Organisation for the US, allows Licensees to copy from certain material published in the United States of America.

Under this agreement, print editions by US publishers are covered for photocopying under the CLA licence. Some works may be excluded by the publisher. You can find the list of excluded US publishers on the international territories page for the USA

You can make scans only if the publisher has opted the ISBN/ISSN into the CLA repertoire to include scanning permissions under the CLA Licence. If this is the case, the ISBN/ISSN search result will indicate this on the Check Permissions tool.

There are a few things to look out for:

• Permissions are linked to the ISBN, not the title
• Please also note that different editions of the same title can have different copying permissions if they have different ISBNs
• If the ISBN/ISSN from a US published edition does not return a result, i.e. is ‘Not Found’ on Check Permissions, the ISBN/ISSN has not been opted in by the publisher to include scanning permissions under the CLA Licence. You may need permission from the publisher direct to make scans. All ISBNs from US-based publishers that have been opted in for scanning, will show a result in Check Permissions that shows the title. 
• If a suitable digital version is commercially available you should purchase or subscribe to this version instead of scanning from print.
  This refers to US print titles where we don’t have an international mandate direct from the publisher and where licensing is granted through our agreement with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). If you want to scan from such a title, you should first check whether there is already a suitable digital version commercially available – and if there is, purchase or subscribe to this version instead of scanning from print. This requirement is due to the nature of our agreement with CCC, which in turn reflects CCC’s mandate from US publishers. Affected titles can be identified on Check Permissions, which lists ‘USA’ as the country of publication in each case. (If we have an international mandate direct from the publisher, the country of publication will be listed as ‘UK’)
• The list of excluded US-based publishers is located on the international territories listings for the USA. Please click on your licence sector to view the list. 

If  you need to make scans from an US edition that has not been opted in to include scanning or from an edition that has been excluded by the publisher, you may need direct permission from the copyright owner to reuse the material. 

Your intended use may be covered by the exceptions for educational copying in the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, specifically s.36 Copying and use of extracts of works by educational establishments and s.32 Illustration for Instruction. Your institution’s copyright specialist will be able to advise you further.

If you are having difficulty using the Check Permissions tool, can’t find the title you are looking for or believe the results returned to be incorrect, please do not hesitate to contact us at [e-mail]  or [e-mail], and we will be happy to help. 

This text is intended for use as guidance only and not as a substitute for the CLA Licence terms themselves, which should be read in full. In the event of conflict between the two, the Licence shall prevail. For permissions not listed above, please contact the publisher direct.