Copyright Insights: In conversation with Matthew Bland, Lincoln’s Inn Library

In a 2024 survey conducted by Savanta for the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), legal sector respondents were asked, ‘How confident are you that you understand the best practices to reduce the risk of infringing copyright?’ The results showed that 19% of respondents felt ‘extremely confident’ in their understanding. This indicates 81% of respondents are less certain—a notable insight for legal professionals and chambers staff who are expected to be on the right side of copyright law. In fact, 82% of legal sector respondents admitted that infringing copyright is a risk for their organisation.

Matthew Bland, Research Librarian at Lincoln’s Inn, the oldest law library in the country, works closely with its members, barristers, pupils, clerks and staff. He spoke with the Copyright Licensing Agency about his experience of content use, copying, and copyright.

‘Lincoln’s Inn Library provides access to a collection of almost 200,000 legal works, in print and online, as well as comprehensive legal research training and an enquiry service available to barristers, students and clerks of the four Inns of Court. A significant element of this service is the provision of an online document supply service, including the provision of materials supplied for commercial research, in co-operation with CLA.’

‘The library plays a key role in the copying and supply of legal documents, for ‘court bundles’ – to be presented in court for reference in judicial proceedings, the most common cause of content reuse and copying in our library. Fortunately, copies of any written matter made for this purpose are exempt from the usual copyright prohibitions by s. 45(1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.’

According to the survey, 62% of legal sector respondents reported using content to gather important sources of reference material. This weaves into using cases for court proceedings, as expected.

‘Occasionally, barristers might also wish to copy material for academic or professional papers on various subjects. Sometimes, but not always, this is covered by the statutory exemption for ‘non-commercial research’

There are copying scenarios that do not align with this example, however, and require the appropriate permissions to ensure compliance. Matthew explains,

‘In addition to their work in court, barristers frequently need to perform in-depth research for both written and legal advice. As this is part of their professional work it constitutes commercial research and is not covered by the statutory exemptions.’

Matthew highlights a common confusion between non-commercial research or private study as a category for copyright usage, and the boundaries between this and commercial use.

‘It can sometimes be difficult to clarify whether the purpose of a piece of research is “commercial”. For example, academic articles are rarely a source of income, but they are often a tool for raising the profile of an academic or lawyer in their profession and thus advancing their career and, therefore, income. This would constitute commercial research. Equally, the provision of legal advice may not always be commercial in nature – for example, some pro bono work, for which exemptions would apply.’

Relying on copyright exceptions for judicial proceedings is not always the safest or most responsible route to compliance and risk mitigation. In fact, 56% of survey respondents from the legal sector said they use content to support training and development, and 53% to stay in touch with the industry. Content reused for staff and tenants’ training, PR and comms is likely to require copyright permissions. It is important to be confident on what the intended use is, and any associated permissions required. With only 65% agreeing they knew where to find required permissions, copying for these purposes could leave legal professionals and chambers staff in an undesirable position.

‘It is inevitably the case that a member of the library staff will be more familiar with the detail of copyright restrictions than library users.’ Matthew admits, ‘This is usually not an issue given the exemption for judicial proceedings, but where the purpose of research being conducted by a clerk on behalf of a barrister is not clear, it can become a problem.’

Whether hard copy or digital, the appropriate copyright permissions should be respected. Permissions can be sought, either directly from publishers or via a blanket copyright licence, such as the Law Licence provided by Government-regulated CLA.

The CLA Law Licence, created in consultation with the Law Society of England & Wales and the City of London Law Society (CLLS), is a blanket licence. It, therefore, includes copying permissions for millions of titles under one licence.

CLA acknowledges the unique structure of barristers’ chambers, where tenants operate as self-employed individuals. For the purposes of a CLA Law Licence, all tenants and professionals within a chambers are considered professional employees, permitting one licence to cover the entire chambers. This provides a cost-effective solution for copyright compliance and risk mitigation.

On the CLA Licence, Matthew adds, ‘The main benefits to holding a CLA Licence are clear and unambiguous legal compliance, quality guidance from CLA, and the ability to have a transparent approach to the opportunities and limitations of our document supply service.’

 

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