Useful information for using My Content during your royalties data collection

Click to jump to question:

• Q: What does CLA’s My Content tool do?
• Q: What do you mean by content?
• Q: What do you mean by re-use?
• Q: What do you mean by royalties data?
• Q: What’s the best way to identify a publication?
• Q: What are the cost implications of telling CLA what published material is being used – will our licence fee go up?
• Q: We use lots of videos from YouTube, is this included?
• Q: Our school has several online subscriptions to published resources, which include unlimited photocopying. Do I need to include these?
• Q: What about workbooks?
• Q: Does your licence cover newspapers?
• Q: The book I want to copy is covered by the CLA licence so can I just copy as much as I like?

Q: What does CLA’s My Content tool do?

A: The My Content tool is a quick and easy way to tell us what publications you’ve been sharing with students or colleagues. Published material such as books, magazines, journals, newspapers, websites and digital resources are protected by copyright, but your institution has a CLA licence which allows you to photocopy, scan and re-use this type of content.  Staff at all CLA licensees – in this case your school - are required to tell CLA what publications they are copying from so that authors, artists and publishers are fairly paid when their work has been re-used in this way. 

Q: What do you mean by content?

A: In this instance, content refers to pages, articles, text extracts or images from publications, such as those mentioned above, which are used during the course of your work. For example, if you created a handout to share with students which was made up of published material alongside something your own notes.

Q: What do you mean by re-use?

A: Re-use is simply an all-encompassing term to describe sharing content with others such as your students or colleagues.  This includes but is not limited to:

• Photocopying
• Scanning
• Copy and pasting into a document
• Emailing
• Sharing or storing online using the VLE or platforms such as Teams or Google

Q: What do you mean by royalties data?

A: This is the information CLA needs to pay royalties to the creators of those publications which have been copied in some way, as opposed to being bought.  We need to be able to identify the publication and to understand how much of it was copied as well as how many people it was shared with. The quantities are important as this determines how much royalties someone will be paid. 

You don’t have to be re-using something from an original publication either so if you have a favourite handout you copy to give to students every year, it should still be recorded as data if some of it came from published material.

Q: What’s the best way to identify a publication?

A: The best work identifier you can provide is the ISBN/ISSN.  These are unique serial numbers which identify a publication, right down to the edition. 

• ISBN – Books; usually found on the back cover or at the front with publishing details.
• ISSN – Serials, journals, magazines, newspapers, etc.; usually found on the ‘masthead’ or near the front alongside publishing details.

If you don’t have the IS number you must always tell us the title, publisher & author, if known.

Q: What are the cost implications of telling CLA what published material is being used – will our licence fee go up?

A: No. The licence fee is based on student numbers so, whether you were copying for a class of 3 or 300, there are no cost implications for providing this information.

Q: We use lots of videos from YouTube, is this included?

A: Although a website is considered a publication, online videos are not required as the CLA licence only covers still images and text from published material.

Q: Our school has several online subscriptions to published resources, which include unlimited photocopying. Do I need to include these?

A: There are instances when you don’t need to include copying from this type of material, but it is worth checking. CLA has many digital publishers so you can find out if your subscription is covered by the CLA licence using the Check Permissions tool on our website. If it’s part of the licence your re-use will need to be recorded. 

Q: What about workbooks?

A: Workbooks, work cards, assignment sheets, test/assessment papers are not covered by the licence so do not need to be recorded.

Q: Does your licence cover newspapers?

A: The CLA licence does not cover these but if your school has the NLA [media access] licence then you are allowed to re-use this type of material. State-funded schools and academies in England have the NLA licence though arrangements in the other regions vary. 

Q: The book I want to copy is covered by the CLA licence so can I just copy as much as I like?

A: You can copy up to 5% or one chapter, whichever is the greater for each cohort of students, whether a specific class or learning module.  This means you can also copy a different extract from the same book for another year group in your subject. 

If another teacher needs another chapter from the same book but for a totally different subject, they can also copy the same amount.  For example, if you make a copy of a book chapter and give it to year four, you can make a copy of a different chapter from the same book to give it to year five.   Alternatively, a Geography teacher could make a copy from a book and a Biology teacher could copy another chapter from the same book. 

If you have any questions that haven't been answered by this article, please contact [e-mail] or your CLA Royalties Officer.