Law Licence FAQs

An Extended Multinational Law Licence is also available, simplifying licensing for global firms and improving efficiencies in licence costs and document sharing. The fee metric is slightly different to the standard Law Licence from CLA. The UK remains exactly the same under the Multinational Licence. For offices outside the UK, fees are based on an FTE (full-time equivalent employee) basis, so it draws in a headcount figure for your operations outside of the UK. Thanks to the relationship CLA has with CCC, our respective multinational licences include each other’s rights. So, where your firm has a CCC licence in the USA, it is possible to include those rights under a licence with CLA.

The licence gives professional employees at law firms and barristers' chambers the right to re-use extracts from millions of published digital and print publications, including articles supplied by media monitoring agencies. It provides protection against the risk of copyright infringement and includes an indemnity against legal action and the associated costs. The licence offers a simple solution to copyright compliance so you can research and collaborate with peace of mind. Permissions within the licence specifically tailored for the legal sector include;

• Share copies on an ad-hoc basis with clients and other legal professionals in relation to an ongoing case
• Share copies with existing or prospective customers on matters for which they may seek legal advice in the future (excludes CCC repertoire)
• Share a single digital or hard copies with colleagues in offices overseas (employees in the same firm)
• Retain digitised copies beyond termination of the licence and for as long as required to retain records of actual and contemplated legal proceedings

The CLA Law Licence permissions permit the lawful copying and inclusion of published content to prompt permitted generative AI tools to generate outputs (subject to licence terms). With these new permissions, outputs from these prompts can be used for internal purposes such as presentations, meetings and briefings, staff training, internal comms and reporting, as well as some permitted external use. Learn more about these permissions here  

The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and NLA Media Access (NLA) are separate licensing bodies that represent separate publication repertoires. Organisations making copies from a variety of media will invariably find they will benefit from holding both licences. NLA media access provides cover for newspapers, some magazines, and websites. The CLA licence covers millions of publications including books, journals, trade magazines, periodicals, law reports, and many digital publications and online content including ‘free-to-view’ websites. There is no overlap between CLA and NLA repertoire, the licences complement one another. The differences between CLA and NLA licences coverage is explored here.

Your Media Monitoring Agency is covered under their CLA licence to send clippings to you, their clients. Under their licence, one person can receive a clipping, view it once, and print and retain a hard copy. If you wish to have multiple user access or make multiple copies of media clippings this will require your business to hold your own CLA licence. A licence is required if electronic/web clippings are accessed more than once, or by more than one employee, or if additional copies are made, forwarded, or digitally stored from clippings received electronically or in hard copy.