The University holds a CLA Higher Education Licence permitting, subject to terms, the making and sharing of multiple copies of excerpts from published works, for educational (and some related) purposes. For example, the licence covers copying of book chapters and journal articles for course provision, as well as copying for internal informational – and some collaborative research – purposes.
The licence covers copying from print and digital publications, including most UK books, journals and magazines, plus many titles published overseas. However, some categories of material are excluded altogether, including maps, music and newspapers. Copies may only be made from the licensed repertoire, and must adhere to the applicable extent limits.
Generally, the maximum that may be copied under the licence is one whole chapter from a book (or the equivalent, for material organised in other ways; e.g. one whole scene from a play), or 10% of the total publication, whichever is the greater. However, since August 2024, the extent limit for journals and magazines has increased to two whole articles per issue or 10%, with additional copying permitted from some special issues. (For more information, see the following tabs.)
Most digital copying under the licence is subject to specific data reporting requirements, informing the royalty payments made to the authors and publishers of copied excerpts. Photocopying is subject to additional, occasional data sampling exercises, for the same reason.
Colleagues copying, or requesting copies, under this licence must understand and abide by the relevant requirements for compliance with the terms and conditions.
See the other tabs and links in this box for important details on making and sharing copies of published works under the CLA Higher Education Licence.
Primarily, the CLA Higher Education Licence covers the provision of course readings to student cohorts, involving the creation and/or distribution of multiple copies of copyright-protected material excerpted from books, journals and magazines. Secondarily, the licence also covers some sharing of copies internally, for the University’s informational purposes, and externally, for some collaborative research purposes, subject to the licence terms.
These terms do not apply to copying for personal private study, nor limit copying that may be otherwise permissible as fair dealing for the purpose of non-commercial research.
Digital copies, whether made by scanning from print or copying digital publications, must be requested via the Library and made by members of Library staff specifically trained in this role. This is to ensure compliance with the licence's strict terms as to the creation, storage and reporting of digital copies for course provision. Use the link below to access full details of the Library's digital scanning support service.
Failure to comply with the licence conditions risks resulting in the creation of infringing copies, in breach of copyright and/or authors' moral rights. It is essential that all staff use the Library’s scanning service, to adhere to the licence terms and avoid infringement.
Photocopies of materials covered by the licence can be made for licensed purposes by all staff and students. Photocopying is subject to the same extent limits as digital copying but does not need to be reported, as royalties data is sampled via occasional mandatory data collection exercises instead.
Digital copies for course provision must always be securely hosted on the Talis Aspire online reading lists platform, even if accessed via Blackboard. It is not permissible to upload scans directly to a Blackboard course area.
Up to one photocopy per registered student and teaching staff member may be handed out for course use, or included in hard copy course packs or study packs.
The University's licence coverage extends to distance learners registered at our Reading campuses but does not extend to any students taught through the Malaysia campus.
The licence permits copying from publications owned or subscribed to by the University and included in the licence repertoire. Determining whether any given publication is included can be complicated, depending on the type of work, format (print or digital) and country of publication. However, the Copyright Licensing Agency provides an online tool for checking permissions under its licences, available via the link below.
Generally, print books, journals, magazines, conference proceedings and law reports published in the UK are covered, unless specifically excluded. Print publications from a range of other countries are also covered, again unless specifically excluded. However, scanning or digital copying from many US publications, and copying from digital publications more generally, requires additional care, as many titles are covered only on an opt-in basis.
In addition to individual works specifically excluded, some categories of published works are not covered by the licence:
To assist in identifying whether a particular publication is eligible to copy under the CLA HE Licence, and in what form, use the CLA's 'Check Permissions' tool (selecting ‘Higher Education’ from the Licence Type menu).
Generally, the University must own or subscribe to the publication from which the copy is made, usually meaning material available via the Library. A source copy owned by a colleague personally cannot be copied from under the licence, other than in exceptional circumstances, such as a publication being very old and no longer available to purchase, including second-hand.
For licensed repertoire, it is permissible to copy up to the greater of 10% of the total publication or:
Remember that some US print titles are licensed only for photocopying and may not be scanned under the licence. Some US journals are also excluded from the additional provision for special issues, and the extent limit for those journals remains two articles or 10%.
In addition to the educational copying activity permitted only under licence – such as distributing articles and chapters to students, or recording television programmes to show in class – more minor acts of copying and reuse can be permissible under copyright exceptions provided by law. These provisions apply only in certain circumstances but recognise that producing, using and distributing teaching and learning materials sometimes involves copying that should not depend on a licence agreement.
UK copyright exceptions permit limited reuse in some specific instances, subject to a test of ‘fair dealing’. The extent to which a fair dealing copyright exception will apply is context-specific and depends on the facts of the case. However, the use cannot be excessive or considered to conflict unduly with the interests of the copyright owner (e.g. by replacing a sale of a work). Reliance on fair dealing exceptions almost always requires accompanying acknowledgement of the creator and source.
Two such exceptions of particular relevance for teaching uses are ‘criticism, review and quotation’ and ‘illustration for instruction’.
Criticism, review and quotation
The criticism and review exception permits limited reuse of protected, published material for the purposes of facilitating direct, germane critique. For example, it may be permissible to reproduce a photograph if it is necessary to refer to specific visual elements in an accompanying commentary. Don’t forget that the assessment of ‘fair dealing’ is context-specific: you must always be guided by considering whether an independent ‘fair-minded and honest person’ would agree with your approach. It might be harder to demonstrate ‘fair dealing’ with a high-resolution commercial stock photograph, than with a low-resolution copy of an image for which the rights owner would not normally expect to charge reproduction fees.
The provision for quotation specifically – which does not require accompanying critique – is rather more restrictive and generally permits reproduction of only a limited portion of a published work (so would only permit reproduction of a whole photograph in exceptional circumstances). It is not permissible to quote more than is required by your specific purpose, or to quote long extracts without permission. However, this exception certainly permits the use of attributed quotations from published works in handouts or course packs, for example.
It is not fair dealing to quote (whether for criticism, review or otherwise) if the source material has not been made available to the public, or if you fail to include appropriate attribution (unless doing so is impossible – e.g. for an anonymous work).
Illustration for Instruction
This exception applies to non-commercial teaching uses, specifically (whether taking place on University premises or elsewhere, or in recorded lectures delivered remotely via a secure Virtual Learning Environment). Generally, extracts of material (including text, images and video) can be reproduced under this exception in lecture slides, or otherwise used during a teaching session, for the sole purpose of illustrating a teaching point. Again, accompanying acknowledgement of the work and the creator is always required, unless doing so is ‘impossible’.
Note that this exception does not permit aesthetic uses, nor uses that are removed from the act of teaching. For example, it is permissible to display an image of a painting, or the text of a poem, in the course of your teaching – but it is unlikely to be permissible to distribute multiple copies of that painting or poem, without recourse to a licence.
Always credit the creator and source
In practice there is a high degree of overlap between the ‘criticism, review and quotation’ exception and the ‘illustration for instruction’ exception, so lecturers should not be too concerned about which exception might apply. The crucial point is to always include sufficient acknowledgement of the author/creator and the source of every extract or image you have used: if you fail to do this, it is likely that neither exception will apply, so your use will be infringing.
The Educational Recording Agency (ERA) provides a licence which allows recordings to be made of television, radio and Internet broadcasts for educational purposes.
Free to air programmes, for example any broadcast on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Freeview channels (including Open University programmes) are covered by the license. These guidelines are adapted from the ERA web pages.
See the other tabs and links in this box for information on making recordings under the licence.
Recordings can be retained indefinitely. There are no record-keeping requirements at present.
The easiest way to get this content is via Box of Broadcasts (BoB) - record TV and radio programmes or watch over 2 million previously recorded programmes, all available immediately.
Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is a streaming service and requires an internet connection. If you need a hard copy of a programme, on DVD for example, you can either make the recording from the live broadcast or contact the Library's Multimedia manager who may be able to source a copy.
Be aware that the majority of on-demand content will only be available to you for a limited time - if you want to use it for an ongoing period it is better to use Box of Broadcasts (BoB).
If you want to obtain a recording of a programme contact the Library's Multimedia Manager with the programme details
Copying from newspapers for teaching purposes is governed by the terms of the University's NLA Education Establishment Licence. This permits occasional photocopying and scanning of newspaper articles (and photographs, advertisements and other excerpted content) from the print edition of papers included in the NLA repertoire and the digital copying and printing of individual articles from some newspaper websites.
See the other tabs in this box for further information on accessing, sharing, and making use of newspaper article copies.
Photocopying, scanning and digital copying under the NLA Licence may be carried out by any member of staff as long as the licence conditions, including the record-keeping requirements detailed below, are observed.
Note that this applies to copying from eligible newspaper publications only: digital copying from books and journals is governed by the terms of the separate CLA Higher Education Licence and must be requested via the Library to comply with those separate CLA Licence terms.
Paper copies may be handed out to registered students during teaching, or included in hard copy course packs or study packs made available at our campuses in the UK and Malaysia. A maximum of one copy per student is permitted. Copies may also be projected on screen during lectures and seminars.
Digital copies may be provided via online reading lists on the Talis Aspire platform, or hosted directly on a module’s restricted Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard). Again, please note that this applies only to the ad hoc scanning or digital copying of some newspaper articles and not to the provision of any material from books and journals under the University’s CLA Licence, which must always be hosted on the Talis Aspire platform (even if accessed via Blackboard).
To comply with clause 5.5 of the NLA Licence, all copies (however distributed) must include the notice: ‘NLA licensed copy. No further copies may be made except under licence’. No other alterations may be made.
To comply with clause 5.9 of the NLA Licence, any member of staff photocopying from a newspaper must email copyright@reading.ac.uk with the following information:
The following UK national newspapers (including pull-out supplements) and, where listed, newspaper websites are included under our licence:
Note that no scanning or digital copying from the Financial Times – and no copying from FT.com – is permitted under the NLA Licence. The Financial Times Limited license use of digital cuttings directly; for more information, see the FT's copyright policy. For alternative access link instead to online content via Library subscriptions - search the FT using this link:
Online access to features and articles published in the Financial Times. Covers 1996 to the present day.
30 regional titles, including:
Five foreign newspapers (photocopying/scanning from print editions only):
It is only permissible to copy directly from the original print newspaper or eligible newspaper website; not from versions accessed via Library subscription databases like ProQuest News & Newspapers or LexisLibrary.
The NLA Licence should be used for ad hoc copying – where it is helpful to provide a specific article to students enrolled on a specific module for a specific teaching purpose. Photocopies at the original size may be made on plain paper or otherwise to enable projection onto a screen. Artistic works, including third party advertisements appearing with the article, may be copied. Scans must not be digitally altered unless strictly necessary for a pedagogical purpose.
Remember, each copy must include the following notice:
The NLA Licence must not be used for systematic copying, commercial copying or archival copying. Copies must not be shared externally; distributed copies may not be further copied by the recipient or otherwise shared or reused by any person who is not employed by the University or is not a fellow student.
Where possible (i.e. not restricted by technological protection methods such as paywalls), it is likely to be preferable to simply link to an article hosted on a newspaper website, rather than distributing copies under the NLA Licence.