Why do I need a CLA Education Licence if there are exceptions to copyright?
The exceptions to copyright only permit copying under limited circumstances and do not remove the need for a CLA Licence – they support teaching for example where a particular work is not covered under a licence or they allow minor uses, like sharing a few lines of text on an interactive whiteboard to illustrate a point. You can find further information on the exceptions to copyright here.
The CLA Education Licence allows educational establishments to make photocopies and scans from a vast range of books, journals and magazines to create teaching resources for handouts, course packs, share copies on a VLE or send them as email attachments to your students. You can also copy and paste from digital publications. When making copies under the Licence, you do not need to seek direct permission from the copyright owner every time you want to make and share a copy.
I have heard of EHESS. Can FE Colleges use this, too?
Yes, absolutely – FE colleges can also take advantage of EHESS. CLA offer EHESS for Further Education in partnership with the British Library. This service allows you to order copyright-fee-paid (CFP) and scans from the British Library of chapters or articles that you don’t own. If you purchase a CFP copy, then your institution owns the material and it can sit in your library stock as any other purchase would. If the material is included in the CLA Licence, you are also covered to copy from the CFP copy as per the normal terms and conditions. (It is best to check whether an edition is covered for copying under the CLA Education Licence, using our Check Permissions tool on the CLA website before you place an order if you are planning to make copies later.)
You can also order scans from material that the college owns, if you don’t have the time or resources to make the scans yourself. All material supplied through this service is Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free so you can share the copies with students, the scans are of a high quality using preservation-standard workflow and they come with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and full meta-data as standard. You can find further information on EHESS for Further Education and download the application form on our website.
Please note that because of the current Covid 19 restrictions, the British Library is unable to set up new customers at this moment, but if you are interested in using EHESS for Further Education, please send us your application form and the British Library will set up your account as soon as restrictions are lifted.
When I search for titles on your Check Permissions tool I sometimes get an amber result. Does that mean that I can’t copy from this edition?
There are a number of reasons, why the Check Permissions tool might display an amber results. Sometimes the ISBN has not been added to the CLA database yet and there is no information on the title or permissions status available yet. We have designed a simple interactive step-by-step guide, which you can download here. This will help you work out whether copying is permitted if the result is unclear. If you are still not sure, please let us know and we’d be happy to help. For the most accurate results, we recommend that you search by ISBN or ISSN if you have it.
The Education Platform looks interesting. Can FE Colleges sign up for this?
Yes, FE colleges can also sign up and use the Education Platform and it is available at no additional cost to CLA Education Licensees. Just remember that the Education Platform is still in its beta version and has been designed first of all with schools in mind. While we work closely with publishers and continuously add new content to the Education Platform, some of the teaching resources that you may be looking for may not be available just yet.
If you’d like to find out more, please go to the Education Platform website where you can watch a quick demonstration video and sign up if you are interested.
Do we need a CLA Licence to share weblinks?
It is not necessary to have a CLA Licence to share a weblink or URLs, but you may need a licence or check the terms of use of the website if you want to copy and/or share any content from the website. Some URLs are opted into the CLA Licence – you can check this on the Check Permissions tool on the CLA website but entering the URL, in which case you may copy and share content from the website with your students. If a website allows you to use their material, for example under a Creative Commons, you can choose to make copies under the website’s user terms rather than the CLA Licence.
The imprint page advises that I can't make copies without prior permission from the publisher. Do I have to follow the copyright advice in a book if the college has a licence?
If the book is covered by the CLA Licence, which can be checked on the Check Permissions tool then you can make copies as per the terms and conditions of the CLA Licence. If the college does not have a CLA Licence you should follow the advice on the imprint page and seek direct permissions.
We have a student who wants to make copies of more than 5% for private study? Does the Licence allow this?
The CLA Education Licence permits an educational organisation to make copies from books, journals and magazines for teaching and learning purposes, for example to create course packs or hand-outs in class. Copying by students for private study and research is covered by an exception to copyright.
Can I share copies with colleagues at a partner college?
The CLA Education Licence does not allow you to share copies made under the Licence with anyone outside of your organisation. Please see the User Guidelines and terms and conditions of the CLA Education Licence for the definition of who is considered an authorised user.
Can a teacher make copies from their own books?
It is a requirement of the CLA Licence that the organisation owns or subscribes to the source copy that you want to copy from. In exceptional circumstances, you may use a teacher's book if you have made all reasonable efforts to source a copy (including Amazon marketplace) and are unable to purchase it.
These changes to the licence terms mean that teachers can:
- copy up to 30% of a print book, including scanned book content held on the school or college VLE
- use books owned personally by teachers in addition to school-owned books up to the 30% limit.
Important conditions apply, so please refer to our website.
Can I copy an audio CD that is part of a book?
The CLA Licence does not cover copying of any audio files. Please contact the publisher for permission to re-use the material.
How long do we have to wait before we can make copies from the same book again?
You can make copies up to the extent limit (5% / one chapter or article) per course per academic year and per student contingent, i.e. if you want to make copies from the same book for a different course with a different set of students, the full extent limit for the publication applies again to that course and student contingent.
These changes to the licence terms mean that teachers can:
- copy up to 30% of a print book, including scanned book content held on the school or college VLE
- use books owned personally by teachers in addition to school-owned books up to the 30% limit.
Important conditions apply, so please refer to our website.
We teach HE in FE courses. Which extent limit applies - 10% or up to 5%?
If the students are registered with the FE college, then the 5% / one chapter extent limit applies. The 10% / one chapter extent limit is only available to CLA Higher Education Licensees.
To help CLA Education Licensees during college closures due to Covid-19, CLA have temporarily relaxed the licence terms
These changes to the licence terms mean that teachers can:
- copy up to 30% of a print book, including scanned book content held on the school or college VLE
- use books owned personally by teachers in addition to school-owned books up to the 30% limit.
Important conditions apply, so please refer to our website.
We have the NLA Education Establishment Licence. Is there an extent limit as to how much can be copied from a newspaper?
NLA do not specify an extent limit as long as you don’t make any more copies than you need for teaching and learning purposes for a group of students.
NLA also currently allow licensed FE colleges free access to the Newspapers for Schools ‘News Library’. You can register here.
You can always find out more about the CLA Education Licence on our website. If you have any other questions, please send an email to: support@claedqueries.zendesk.com
About the Author
Margret is Education Customer Services Coordinator at CLA and she is here to provide guidance on Licence related questions and permissions queries, as well as helping our customers make the most of what the CLA Education Licences have to offer. Margret has been with CLA in various Customer Service related roles for more than six years. Before joining CLA she worked as Foreign Rights Manager in children's book publishing, graduated in Cultural Studies and English Literature and worked as a qualified bookseller in England and Germany.
