Publishers Licensing Society
Encyclopedia
The Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) is a not-for-profit organisation that represents all book
, journal and serial publishers
based in the United Kingdom
. PLS works to ensure that publishers are fairly compensated for any copying of their works through the collective licensing scheme, and works to ensure that publishers' copyright
is protected within that scheme. The society was established in 1981 and has distributed £192 million to publishers since then.
or ALCS, which looks after author
s’ interests, PLS owns and directs The Copyright Licensing Agency
and works in partnership with the Design and Artists Copyright Society.
PLS’s core function is to:
. As the trade associations are representative of the UK publishing industry, this ensures that the PLS Board is also representative of the UK publishing industry.
PLS also represents publishers that have not yet signed the PLS mandate, but whose works have been copied. PLS will collect royalties
for those publishers and hold them on trust until they can be paid to the rightful owners.
In turn, PLS gives authority to CLA to include publishers’ rights within the collective licences that it sells to information users; typically educational institutions, government departments and businesses in the UK. PLS distributes copyright royalties back to publishers by way of distributions.
in the early 1970s, the situation on control of copyright
in the UK’s main institutions ran out of control. Machines appeared everywhere and infringements proliferated.
A committee was formed, chaired by Mr Justice Whitford, on Copyright and Design Law and asked to investigate the situation. It reported early in 1977 and recommended collective copyright licensing as the solution. It also recommended the abolition of the fair dealing
and library
privilege exceptions. This was dearly desired by publishers but never achieved. Political pressure
from information-users was always too great.
Later that year, the Publishers' Association (PA) convened a Committee chaired by Lord Wolfenden
, formerly Vice Chancellor of Reading University
and Director of the British Museum
, to look at the implementation of the Whitford proposals on licensing. Represented on the Committee where the PA, the PPA, ALPSP, the Music Publishers Association, the Society of Authors
, the Writers Guild
and the Composer Guild. The newspaper associations were invited to join but declined to participate.
Publishers were initially unresponsive to the concept of collective licensing, particularly on a blanket basis. And at an early stage, the Music Publishers Association and the Composers Guild withdrew from the Wolfenden Committee
. They conducted two successful and much publicised actions against infringement by photocopying at a public school. This encouraged them to think that the best solution was to issue a Code of Practice backed by legal action
rather than licensing. Printed music was excluded from the collective licence. To this day music publishers have never returned.
The Wolfenden Committee made licensing of schools its first objective. The Scottish local authorities
always recognised the necessity of licensing. In England and Wales, however, long arguments persisted that all their multiple copying was legal because it did not represent substantial parts of works. The only course of action was to resort to law. A case came to hand over the copying of technical drawings in Manchester
local authority. The local authorities backed down and agreed to negotiate a licence. So did the universities, where solicitors’ letters had been issued over similar infringements.
Lord Wolfenden bowed out of the scene and leading copyright lawyer Denis de Freitas was asked to work on the structure of the licensing agency. Publishers wanted there to be an agency, but authors insisted a forceful language from the President, Lord Willis, that all their payments must go through ALCS. It was therefore necessary to form the Publishers Licensing Society, established in 1981, to manage publishers’ rights and pay publishers accordingly.
Setting up a licensing structure on the publishing side had been met by loans from the PA and PPA. When the Copyright Licensing Agency was formed, PLS passed all administration of collective licensing to the new body. Colin Hadley was appointed as the Manager of CLA. PLS was deliberately run as a low key operation in contrast to ALCS. Eventually the profile of PLS was raised by expanding the management team.
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
was a landmark and demonstrated the wisdom of having put the societies and licensing agency in place. The whole principle of licensing was endorsed and written into legislation via Chapter VII of the 1988 Act.
In April 2008 collective licensing completed a full circle
with the launch of the first licences in UK to cover the copying, or re-use, of digital material – the first of their kind to be developed in Europe.
Despite some operational tensions over rights and licensing proposals between PLS and CLA over the years, the creation of the two organisations has been a great success and now raises many millions of pounds each year for publishers. Important to the success of PLS have been the avoidance by the principles (ALPSP, PA, & PPA) of any attempt to undermine each other’s position and their willingness to consult with publishers to ensure that the various proposals were acceptable.
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
, journal and serial publishers
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
based in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. PLS works to ensure that publishers are fairly compensated for any copying of their works through the collective licensing scheme, and works to ensure that publishers' copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
is protected within that scheme. The society was established in 1981 and has distributed £192 million to publishers since then.
Operations Overview
PLS represents the interests of publishers in the collective licensing of photocopying and digitisation, and more recently the re-use of digital material. Together with the Authors' Licensing and Collecting SocietyAuthors' Licensing and Collecting Society
The Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society is a British organisation that works to ensure that writers are fairly compensated for any of their works that are copied, broadcast or recorded. It has operated in the United Kingdom since 1977...
or ALCS, which looks after author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
s’ interests, PLS owns and directs The Copyright Licensing Agency
The Copyright Licensing Agency
The Copyright Licensing Agency is a UK non-profit organisation based in London, England. Founded in 1983 by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society and the Publishers' Licensing Society ., the 'CLA' issues collective licences on behalf of authors, visual artists and publishers...
and works in partnership with the Design and Artists Copyright Society.
PLS’s core function is to:
- oversee a collective licensing scheme in the UK for book, journal, and magazine copying
- stimulate innovation and good practice in rights management
- clarify the relationship between traditional copyright management practices and those needed in the digital age.
Governance and authority
PLS currently has direct authority from 2,325 publishers based in the UK. It has three owners/ members: the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, the Periodical Publishers Association and the Publishers Association. The PLS Board consists of three senior representatives from each of the publishing trade associations. There are ten Board members in total including the CEO who is an executive director. Two thirds of the Board members are senior executives from publishing housesPublishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
. As the trade associations are representative of the UK publishing industry, this ensures that the PLS Board is also representative of the UK publishing industry.
PLS also represents publishers that have not yet signed the PLS mandate, but whose works have been copied. PLS will collect royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
for those publishers and hold them on trust until they can be paid to the rightful owners.
In turn, PLS gives authority to CLA to include publishers’ rights within the collective licences that it sells to information users; typically educational institutions, government departments and businesses in the UK. PLS distributes copyright royalties back to publishers by way of distributions.
History of PLS and collective licensing
With the introduction of the dry photocopierXerography
Xerography is a dry photocopying technique invented by Chester Carlson in 1938, for which he was awarded on October 6, 1942. Carlson originally called his invention electrophotography...
in the early 1970s, the situation on control of copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
in the UK’s main institutions ran out of control. Machines appeared everywhere and infringements proliferated.
A committee was formed, chaired by Mr Justice Whitford, on Copyright and Design Law and asked to investigate the situation. It reported early in 1977 and recommended collective copyright licensing as the solution. It also recommended the abolition of the fair dealing
Fair dealing in United Kingdom law
Fair dealing in United Kingdom law is a doctrine which provides an exception to United Kingdom copyright law, in cases where the copyright infringement is for the purposes of non-commercial research or study, criticism or review, or for the reporting of current events...
and library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
privilege exceptions. This was dearly desired by publishers but never achieved. Political pressure
Pressure politics
Pressure politics generally refers to political action which relies heavily on the use of mass media and mass communications to persuade politicians that the public wants or demands a particular action. However, it commonly includes intimidation, threats, and other covert techniques as well.The...
from information-users was always too great.
Later that year, the Publishers' Association (PA) convened a Committee chaired by Lord Wolfenden
John Wolfenden, Baron Wolfenden
John Frederick Wolfenden, Baron Wolfenden, CBE was a British educationalist probably best remembered for chairing the Wolfenden report recommending the decriminalisation of homosexuality, which was published in 1957...
, formerly Vice Chancellor of Reading University
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...
and Director of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, to look at the implementation of the Whitford proposals on licensing. Represented on the Committee where the PA, the PPA, ALPSP, the Music Publishers Association, the Society of Authors
Society of Authors
The Society of Authors is a trade union for professional writers that was founded in 1884 to protect the rights of writers and fight to retain those rights .It has counted amongst its members and presidents numerous notable writers and poets including Tennyson The Society of Authors (UK) is a...
, the Writers Guild
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
and the Composer Guild. The newspaper associations were invited to join but declined to participate.
Publishers were initially unresponsive to the concept of collective licensing, particularly on a blanket basis. And at an early stage, the Music Publishers Association and the Composers Guild withdrew from the Wolfenden Committee
Wolfenden report
The Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution was published in Britain on 4 September 1957 after a succession of well-known men, including Lord Montagu, Michael Pitt-Rivers and Peter Wildeblood, were convicted of homosexual offences.-The committee:The...
. They conducted two successful and much publicised actions against infringement by photocopying at a public school. This encouraged them to think that the best solution was to issue a Code of Practice backed by legal action
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
rather than licensing. Printed music was excluded from the collective licence. To this day music publishers have never returned.
The Wolfenden Committee made licensing of schools its first objective. The Scottish local authorities
Local government of Scotland
Local government in Scotland is organised through 32 unitary authorities designated as Councils which consist of councillors elected every four years by registered voters in each of the council areas....
always recognised the necessity of licensing. In England and Wales, however, long arguments persisted that all their multiple copying was legal because it did not represent substantial parts of works. The only course of action was to resort to law. A case came to hand over the copying of technical drawings in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
local authority. The local authorities backed down and agreed to negotiate a licence. So did the universities, where solicitors’ letters had been issued over similar infringements.
Lord Wolfenden bowed out of the scene and leading copyright lawyer Denis de Freitas was asked to work on the structure of the licensing agency. Publishers wanted there to be an agency, but authors insisted a forceful language from the President, Lord Willis, that all their payments must go through ALCS. It was therefore necessary to form the Publishers Licensing Society, established in 1981, to manage publishers’ rights and pay publishers accordingly.
Setting up a licensing structure on the publishing side had been met by loans from the PA and PPA. When the Copyright Licensing Agency was formed, PLS passed all administration of collective licensing to the new body. Colin Hadley was appointed as the Manager of CLA. PLS was deliberately run as a low key operation in contrast to ALCS. Eventually the profile of PLS was raised by expanding the management team.
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 , also known as the CDPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which received Royal Assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory basis of copyright law in the United Kingdom, which had, until then, been...
was a landmark and demonstrated the wisdom of having put the societies and licensing agency in place. The whole principle of licensing was endorsed and written into legislation via Chapter VII of the 1988 Act.
In April 2008 collective licensing completed a full circle
Full Circle
-Albums:* Full Circle * Full Circle * Full Circle * Full Circle * Full Circle * Full Circle * Full Circle...
with the launch of the first licences in UK to cover the copying, or re-use, of digital material – the first of their kind to be developed in Europe.
Despite some operational tensions over rights and licensing proposals between PLS and CLA over the years, the creation of the two organisations has been a great success and now raises many millions of pounds each year for publishers. Important to the success of PLS have been the avoidance by the principles (ALPSP, PA, & PPA) of any attempt to undermine each other’s position and their willingness to consult with publishers to ensure that the various proposals were acceptable.