MEDEV

School of Medical Sciences Education Development

Most universities (but not all) subscribe to the 'Copyright and Licensing Agency' licences. This is a pre-paid licence, negotiated on behalf of the institution usually by the library, that allows you to copy parts of original works for purposes of instruction or examination. These are the copyright notices that appear next to any device capable of reproducing copies of originals. 

Note however that this is not a blanket right to copy, as the terms of the basic licence are quite strict. There is also a digital extension that again, not all copyright owners are party to. 

The information below is taken straight from the CLA website, please see the original page for the most up to date text. 

Whatever type of organisation you are, a CLA licence lets you copy and share information without the risk of infringing copyright.

The following is a summary of what can be copied under CLA licences:

• All our licences permit the copying from books, trade and consumer magazines, journals and other periodicals plus cuttings and documents supplied by third parties
• Many of our licences also allow the copying and re-use of content from digital publications
• International agreements mean that licence holders can copy from books, journals and magazines published in the UK and 30 other territories including the USA, Canada, Australia and all the major European countries  
• As well as photocopying, scanning and digital re-use, our licences also allow internal emailing of copies and limited storage on a secure intranet
• Copies can be made of up to a chapter, entire article or 5% of the publication, whichever is the greater
• Photographs, illustrations, diagrams or charts may also be copied where they are included in the body of the extract or article

Specific inclusions and exclusions 

Although our licences permit copying from most UK titles, plus publications from 30 international territories, there are certain exceptions. To see details of specific inclusions and exclusions, please refer to the relevant lists published on the site.

UK publications: excluded categories and works

Some categories of published works, as well as some specific works by individual authors, artists and publishers, are excluded from all CLA licences. Please refer to the 'List of Excluded Categories and Excluded Works' for details. 

Included digital material publishers Certain CLA licences include the rights to re-use and copy digital original material in addition to photocopying and scanning. These rights are granted by publishers on an ‘opt-in' basis.

Please refer to the relevant list of 'Participating Digital Material Publishers' to check whether a digital original publication is included under your licence.

Additional scanning restrictions in the higher education sector

Customers in the higher education (HE) sector should also refer to the separate list of 'Works excluded from scanning under the HE licence'.

Foreign publications: international territories

Current agreements permit CLA licensees to copy titles published in certain countries outside the United Kingdom. Please see the list of ‘International Territories' for details.