How to comply with copyright when photocopying

SOAS has a CLA Higher Education Licence which enables staff to make multiple photocopies of limited extracts from printed books, journals and magazines without infringing copyright. This guide is for staff who want to distribute copies of copyright material to students in the form of paper course packs or handouts in the classroom.

Who can make and receive photocopies under the CLA Licence?

Photocopies can be made by contracted members of staff in the UK only.

They may then be supplied to:

  • registered SOAS students (including Distance Learning students located abroad);
  • course tutors;
  • visiting academics (for purposes connected with SOAS); and
  • officers contracted by regulatory agencies such as the Quality Assurance Agency and the Research Excellence Framework (for purposes connected with SOAS).

Please note that Licence coverage does not extend to ‘walk in’ users (eg alumni, former members of staff etc).

What material can be photocopied under the CLA Licence?

The easiest way to find out is to use the CLA’s online Title Search to quickly and easily check coverage. The book, journal or magazine must also be owned or subscribed to by SOAS. This will usually be held in the SOAS Library, but it may also be held in a departmental library or another part of the School. Personal copies of books, journals etc belonging to staff members cannot normally be copied under the CLA Licence.

The Licence permits the photocopying of extracts from books, journals, periodicals, conference proceedings and law reports published in the UK and many countries overseas. There are, however, certain exceptions:

  • Those publications listed on the list of Excluded Categories and Works .
  • Certain publications published overseas, and publications published by certain overseas publishers, which can be viewed on the International section of the CLA website.
What material cannot be photocopied under the CLA Licence?
  • Printed music (including the words).
  • Maps and charts (“charts” refers to charts that are similar to maps – for example sea charts, weather charts and hydrographic charts; other types of charts, for example pie charts and flow charts, are not excluded).
  • Newspapers (however, articles in certain newspapers can be photocopied under SOAS’s licence with the Newspaper Licensing Agency).
  • ‘Copying not permitted under CLA Licence’: any work in which the copyright holder has expressly stipulated that permission is not granted for copying under licences issued by the CLA.
  • Workbooks, workcards and assignment sheets: publications intended for a student to write on and for once-only use.

If your source material is not covered by the Licence you may be able to photocopy it under one of the copyright exceptions.

How much can I photocopy?

You may make as many copies as is necessary to enable each student on a course, plus the course tutor(s), to have access to one copy of each extract.

The proportion of a work that can be copied consists of whichever is the greater of 10% or:

  • one chapter of a book
  • one article of a journal issue
  • one paper of one set of conference proceedings
  • one report of a single case from a report of judicial proceedings
  • one short story or one poem or one play of not more than 10 pages in an anthology of short stories, poems or plays.

These limits apply per course, so you could copy one chapter from a book for one course and a further chapter from the same book for another.

Try to avoid “textbook substitution”: eliminating the need for students to purchase a standard textbook on the subject by covering the same topics with the range of readings provided.

Are there any other requirements?

There are no other requirements. Unlike scanning under the CLA Licence, details of what you photocopy do not have to be reported to the CLA and no copyright notice has to be inserted.

For further advice contact the Information Compliance Manager at copyright@soas.ac.uk .