Copyright licence terms relaxed during lockdown

The Copyright Licensing Agency has announced it will temporarily increase the copying limits in its Education Licence from five to thirty per cent, following consultation with its members and educational publishers.

These changes will last until schools re-open or 31 July at the latest, in order to give teachers and students greater access to learning resources during this difficult period.

The changes to the licence terms mean that teachers can now copy up to 30 per cent of a print book, including scanned book content held on the school VLE and use books owned personally by teachers in addition to school-owned books up to the 30 per cent limit.

To monitor usage, teachers are asked to record details of any copies that they make under these new terms via a web-form made available by CLA.

Philip Hearne, CLA’s Director of Education said: “We recognise the difficult time teachers are having and we are delighted to announce this support package, due to swift backing from our Members and the publishers, authors and visual artists they represent. These temporary measures will improve availability of book content for staff and students over this difficult period.” 

The increase in the copying limit also means that teachers that have registered to use CLA’s Education Platform are able to copy up to 30% from digital books available on the Platform.

Eela Devani, CLA’s Strategy and Digital Director added: “With schools and colleges currently closed, we have been able to respond to the challenges faced by teachers. Thanks to the support of educational publishers, I am pleased to confirm that teachers can access additional copyright content using the Education Platform at this critical time.

"We believe that this initiative, with special acknowledgement to the generosity of educational publishers, can provide the much-needed support that educators need in delivering remote learning to students."