Rise reported in councils taking out copyright licences after Brighton case

An extra 20 local authorities have taken out a copyright licence since a high-profile case involving Brighton & Hove City Council was settled earlier this year, the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) has claimed.

The CLA said five of the councils had previously cancelled their licence but had contacted the agency again after internal reviews.

In April Brighton & Hove agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to cover legal costs and retrospective licence fees. It also agreed to take out a CLA licence for the future.

According to the agency, lawyers acting for Brighton & Hove had originally insisted that the council was not at risk of copyright infringement as it operated a ‘no copying’ policy.

The CLA claimed that its evidence showed that the council’s policy was not working and infringement had been taking place.

Martin Delaney, CLA’s Legal Director said: “I am pleased to see that councils are recognising their legal requirement for a CLA licence. This will help us to protect the UK creative industries, worth more than £36.2bn to the UK economy.”

He repeated earlier threats to pursue those councils that did not have a licence, but should have one.

The CLA said 140 out of 450 UK councils were currently unlicensed. It also warned that where infringement was found, a council’s officers and employees could be held individually liable.

Delaney said: “All of CLA’s licensed councils are surveyed on a rolling program and our data shows that copying is widespread during the course of day-to-day activities. There is no reason to doubt that these practices occur in all of the remaining unlicensed local authorities as well.”