Although the majority of councils in the UK hold copyright licences from the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), earlier this month the Agency forced one of the largest councils in the country to take one following legal action.
Brighton and Hove City Council has now agreed to pay the CLA an undisclosed sum to cover legal costs and retrospective licence fees, as well as agreeing to take a licence for the future.
A CLA licence is normally required by businesses or public sector organisations to allow reproduction of electronic or online publications, copying and emailing of press cuttings and articles or photocopying and scanning from print books, journals or magazines.
Failure to obtain the appropriate permission leaves an organisation open to legal action from CLA, which monitors organisations where it is believed that illegal copying is taking place and investigates reports of copyright infringement in the workplace provided by individuals.
The Council had argued originally that it was not at risk of copyright infringement, as it operated a ‘no copying’ policy, but the CLA gathered evidence to the contrary and is delighted at the outcome of the case.
The CLA’s Legal Director said that it is only fair for authors, visual artists and publishers to be compensated for the use of their copyright works and added that the CLA is determined to investigate any reports of possible copyright infringement and to pursue other councils or any other organisations that do not have a licence but should have.
If an organisation is found to be infringing copyright, then in some cases, its officers and employees can be held individually liable and, as the CLA points out, the reputational as well as the financial costs could be substantial.