Background and Context

CLA has a mandate from publishers, authors and visual artists to offer collective licences on their behalf.

The CLA HE Licence is intended to broaden and enrich the student learning experience, and support the wider running of HEIs, by allowing wider access to copyright materials than would otherwise be possible. In parallel, it enables publishers, authors and visual artists to be remunerated for the use of their work. The terms and conditions are carefully negotiated between CLA and the UUK/GuildHE CNAC, but the Licence is available to all UK HEIs, including those funded entirely through private means.

While the Licence offers valuable benefits, it should be viewed in the wider context of copyright in the UK. Certain exceptions to copyright do apply. Although these do not negate the need for an HEI to take the Licence in the vast majority of cases, we advise you to be aware of the rights they confer. HEIs must make their own decision on the interaction between the Licence and exceptions. We advise you to contact your Copyright Advisor for further information; alternatively, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) publishes comprehensive guidance on exceptions which are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright.

Additionally, the Licence doesn’t prevent your HEI from securing direct permissions – whether that be from a publisher (ad hoc or via a primary licence) or via our Second Extract Permissions Service. You might, for example, want to purchase permission to copy in excess of 10% of a publication, or to copy from a publication that isn’t covered by the Licence. In the same way, where a publication comes with an automatic licence to copy from the publisher (e.g. a website that is both free-to-view and free-to-copy), you can ofv course utilise this – subject to any specific terms and conditions.

How does the CLA Licence fit with primary licences?

The Licence is intended to complement primary (or subscription) licences that come with digital publications (including those issued by e-book platforms) and JISC model licences such as NESLi.

If you want to make copies from a digital publication, you can do this either under the primary licence or the CLA Licence, subject to the terms and conditions of the specific licence. If the CLA Licence is more generous  than the primary licence, that’s fine – provided you don’t override or circumvent any digital rights management (DRM) protocols embedded within a product. You’re free to make a digital copy by a
variety of means (provided again that you don’t override or circumvent any DRM protocols) – including, for example, by copying and pasting, or by copying one page at a time (including into a different format). You can also print out copies from a digital product and then scan these under the Licence, if you wish to.