Electronic Resources in the Virtual Learning

Copyright and electronic reserves
Chapter 1 contains considerable discussion about the development of
electronic reserves collections or, as they are more commonly called in
the UK, electronic course packs. In both the UK and Australia, copying
or scanning copyright works for classroom use goes beyond what is
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permitted by law and is consequently governed by a licence. In the US,
the situation is more permissive and many libraries claim that scanning
for electronic reserves falls into the remit of Fair Use.
In the UK, the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) administers licences
for multiple copying and they offer both paper-to-paper and digitisation
licences for schools, further and higher education and also for business
use. This section draws on the author’s experience obtaining copyright
clearance and digitising readings in-house within an institution and using
the HERON Service. In particular, it draws on experiences at the London
School of Economics and research which was conducted at University
College, London (UCL) to investigate the issues associated with
providing access to core readings in electronic format.
17
The project led
to the establishment of a pilot service at UCL and the author
subsequently has expanded and developed a similar service at the LSE.
Digital copyright in the UK
The CLA is the UK’s reprographic rights agency, representing a large
number of UK publishers and other rightsholders. Librarians are often
familiar with this organisation because it issues paper-to-paper licences
that if purchased by an organisation permit multiple copying to be
undertaken beyond the scope of fair dealing.
In 1999 the CLA issued their first digitisation licence for higher
education. The licence came about following several JISC projects
investigating on-demand publishing or electronic reserves, which were
discussed in more detail in Chapter 1. The CLA licence made provision
for scanning of work so that it could be distributed via a secure network
to authorised persons at an institution. The licence is free to take out;
however, it is currently based on a transactional basis, and all material
scanned under the licence needs to be copyright cleared. In the early days
of the licence it was agreed that the price was to be based on the length
of the article (number of pages) and the number of students to which it
would be distributed. JISC and the Publishers Association made
recommendations that no more than 5 pence per page per student should
be charged for digital permissions. However, the number of publishers
charging 5 pence per page or less has declined rapidly, and it is not
uncommon for publishers to charge far more than this amount.
Currently the CLA is reviewing the Higher Education Digitisation
Licence, in particular the transactional nature of this licence. In January
2004 the CLA held a consultation meeting with the community, where
the higher education sector strongly recommended that a blanket licence
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Copyright and licensing digital texts
approach be adopted. The CLA has also recently issued a trial blanket
licence for further education, covering both scanning and photocopying.
At the time of writing this book, the CLA has entered into negotiations
with two bodies representing the higher education sector, Universities
UK (UUK) and the Standing Conference of Principals (SCOP). There are
indications that a joint scanning and photocopying licence will be issued
on a trial basis in late 2004/early 2005. Under the current model,
expansion of electronic reserves services in the UK is not cost effective.
Moreover, the CLA recognises that a transactional licence is not ideal. In
2001, UUK, which represents the higher education sector in the UK,
brought a case against the CLA before the Copyright Tribunal. The case
was successful and the Tribunal maintained that the transactional nature
of the higher education photocopying licence was restrictive. This led to
the inclusion of course pack copying into the blanket licence.
Australia also provides a useful example of where a blanket licence
approach to digitisation is working. In 2001, following an amendment
to the copyright law, core readings could be scanned for educational use.
The work is undertaken under a licence issued from Australia’s
reprographic rights organisation, the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL).
It is anticipated that such a licence might soon be offered in the UK,
which will undoubtedly lead to an enormous growth in the demand for
electronic reserves.