EMPLOYERS: How to comply Whether you are a business, a public p body or a local authority, you will not want to expose yourself to any unnecessary risk. As a responsible employer you will have policies in place to ensure that you meet all your obligations; from employment and health & safety regulations, to accounting and tax laws. But are you complying with copyright law? law employees For example, if you, or any of your employees; • Photocopy from books, magazines, periodicals or journals; journals • Scan from books, magazines, periodicals or journals; journals • Subscribe to a media monitoring service; service • Store articles on your company intranet; intranet or • Cut and paste from websites or send copies of articles by email. email Then you should take steps to ensure that you manage the risk and potential cost of copyright infringement. What is copyright infringement? An infringement of copyright would occur when a third party performs any of the acts to which the law gives exclusive right to the owner, such as copying, scanning, emailing or storing a work, outside of the narrow statutory exceptions, without prior permission of the copyright owner. What is compliance? By compliance, we mean acting in accordance with copyright law and with best practice at work. Any organization, whether private rivate or public sector, that uses, shares,, communicates communicate or reproduces copyright materials needs to be aware of how copyright law affects them and should introduce policies and practices to help them manage copyright at work. What is the cost of infringement? If your organisation infringes copyright it runs the risk of investigation by Copywatch and subsequent legal action by the copyright owner. This could result in a financial cost through damages being awarded for copyright infringement at the discretion of the court. Any legal action is bad publicity and could damage the reputation of your organisation, organisation in turn affecting incoming investment and possibly even future revenues. Furthermore, individual vidual officers or employees can be considered to have personal sonal liability liab for the infringement if they are held to be responsible. responsible So, how can I comply? You can ensure that you are compliant by obtaining a copyright licence from The Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd (CLA). This is good practice and will help you reduce the risk of infringement for your organisation, your employees and for you as an employer. With very few exceptions, any organisation photocopying, scanning or digitally reproducing material from publications protected by copyright is likely to require a CLA licence to ensure legal compliance. For more information or to give information about suspected copyright infringement please see our website http://copywatch.cla.co.uk Copywatch is the compliance arm of The he Copyright Licensing Agency Limited L (CLA), 6-10 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.