Introducing the New CLA Higher Education Licence

CLA negotiates the terms and pricing of its core licence for Higher Education institutions with the Universities UK and Guild HE Copyright Negotiation and Advisory Committee (CNAC). In the Winter 2018 CITE Magazine we explained the role and membership of this group and how we work with them to enhance and streamline the licence at a fair and agreed price.

We are delighted to confirm that following negotiations over the past six months, we have now come to an agreement with the CNAC for a new licence. This time  around there have been no major changes to the licence terms, but we have introduced some improvements to aid compliance and simplify workflow. We have also negotiated new terms with the RROs in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium to allow works published in those countries to be scanned for the first time, and  brought the licence in line with current legislation around accessible copies.

You may already have seen the official communication from Universities UK / GuildHE, but the main changes to the terms will be as follows:

• An increased fee of £7.51 (1.9% increase) for a three-year term from 1 August 2019
• Simplification of the terms granting the right to make copies for purposes other than those connected specifically with teaching and learning, including for press monitoring and internal administration
• Removal of Clause 11 of the licence, which required institutions to notify staff of the licence terms within 14 days
• Inclusion of scanning rights for repertoire published in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands – previously this was limited to photocopying
• An option for the coverage of any students based at overseas campuses of the HEI, or those studying overseas at a partner institution
• Removal of the clause which prohibits scanning from a print work where the HEI subscribes to a digital version of the same work, however the restrictions on scanning CCC Electronic Rights Works will still apply
• Replacement of Compliance Audits with an Account Management and Review Programme
• A new banding option for the reporting of Non-Credit-Bearing Students
• Improved terms for print disabled persons, complying with the Marrakesh Directive

We’ll be following up on this shortly with a communication to licence coordinators, and will be happy to answer any questions through any of our usual channels.

About the author

James is responsible for managing the development of new and existing CLA licences for the education, business and government sectors, as part of CLA’s mission to make copyright simple for users and copyright owners. His day-to-day work includes consulting with publishers, customers and partners in the UK and overseas, exploring opportunities for innovative licensing and technology solutions, and promoting CLA and its licensing activities to a wide range of stakeholders. Before joining CLA, James enjoyed a fifteen-year career working for a number of successful trade publishers, commissioning and writing non-fiction books and subscription products. He holds an MBA from Henley Business School.  

A version of this blog post was originally published in the Summer 2019 CITE Magazine.