Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
25 years of copyright
Rachel Thornton, Senior Digital Library Advisor (Copyright), reflects on 25 years of copyright in the Higher Education Sector.
I first joined the University as a Library Assistant back in 1990 when it was still Leeds Polytechnic. It was never my intention to follow a career in copyright but in 1997 I was offered the role of Copyright Clearance Officer. The Head of Library Services at the time recognised a need for a centralised service to advise colleagues across the university on copyright and licensing, particularly the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) Licence. What began as a trial, part-time post quickly became my permanent, full time role.
The world was a different place back in 1997 – the first Harry Potter book had just been published, early AI was a computer from IBM which beat a world champion chess player, and the internet was in its infancy with only 70 million users worldwide!
My tasks were very much centred around print materials, such as clearing copyright for printed course packs and the Library’s “off-prints” collection. If I needed to contact a publisher or rights holder for permission, there was no “Googling” the information, I had to consult the hard copy directories in the Quick Ref section of the Library to obtain a contact address. A request letter could then be posted or if I was lucky, faxed! I had the only international fax line in the Library and an unused fax machine still sits on my desk today.
The main copying licence at the time was the CLA licence, which was very different to the agreement we have in place with the CLA today. We also had two licences for the recording of off-air broadcasts: the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) licence and the Open University (OU) licence. This was before digital copies and services such as Box of Broadcasts, so recordings were on physical VHS tapes in the Library.
Today teaching resources are mostly delivered online, via MyBeckett or online reading lists. Licensing for education has become less administrative to manage and covers a wider repertoire. To see how we have reached this place, I have put together some key points in a timeline of copyright development:
1997 CLA Agreement for Licence to Photocopy: consisting of a blanket licence for ad-hoc distribution of photocopies to students on a course of study and a transactional licence for printed course pack copying (clearing via CLARCS - the CLA's Rapid Clearance Service. A copyright fee was paid for each article/chapter in the pack.
1998 Protocol to the HE Photocopying Licence: a supplementary protocol to the main licence authorising the distribution of printed course packs to students via the Campus Bookshop (a major task to collate, produce, price and distribute).
1998 The HERON (Higher Education Resources ON-demand) project: providing a national service to the UK HE community for copyright clearance, digitisation and delivery of book exracts and journal articles.
1999 Supplementary Protocol to the CLA licence granting permission to photocopy “Artistic Works” from books and journals: The CLA acted as agents for DACS, The Design and Artists Copyright Society, enabling the copying of separate images/photographs for an additional fee.
2001/2002 Copyright Tribunal: The Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom (now Universities UK) took the CLA to a Copyright Tribunal demanding a reduction in fee, inclusion of the DACS repertoire for no extra payment and the inclusion of course packs under the blanket licence. The Tribunal ruled in their favour, marking a turning point in relations between the CLA and HE with the CLA working with rather than policing the sector.
2005-2008 the CLA offered its first HE Trial Digitisation Licence: Digital copies could be place on a secure network for a course of study (such as a Virtual Learning Environment like MyBeckett) and there was a move away from transactional clearance via HERON which later dissolved.
2008 HE Licence for Photocopying, Scanning, Digital Use: begins to resemble the agreement we have today with each institution nominating a CLA Licence Co-ordinator.
2013 Open University ceases to be a separate licensing scheme: prior to this OU recordings were invoiced via a log sheet.
2016 Leeds Beckett signs up to the CLA’s Digital Content Store (DCS): this enables storage and access to digitised readings under the CLA licence and improved workflow and reporting.
The current CLA Higher Education Licence is due to expire at the end of July 2024, and negotiations are already underway for the new licence. Although I have contributed to the discussions, I won’t be around to see this next step in licensing provision at the University. I have decided to hang up my copyright shoes and try something new (retirement!!). The next person to take on my role will find many challenges ahead with new developments in technology, research and licensing, but I am confident they will enjoy the experience as much as I have.
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