Further Information: Those responsible for purchasing e-Learning content understand license restrictions and pass the information on to users in a responsible and meaningful way.
What is a licence?
A software licence allows users of software packages or learning resources to certain rights granted by the owner.
What are the restrictions?
Some licences give freedom to do almost anything such as Open Source licences. If software is bought, the licence will usually limit the number of copies that can be made or used. This may be a single user licence where only one copy is allowed or it may be a site licence that can be used across a whole organisation.
Some software providers take strong action against organisations that ignore their licence restrictions.
So it is important that any restrictions are made clear and those responsible for procurement in an organisation make sure that they:
- monitor use of the resources with a licence so that licence rules are adhered to
- inform people about the restrictions before they have access to the resources.
However there is a CLA (Copyright Licensing Agency). The CLA Blanket Photocopy Licence covers print based works, literary and artistic works and permits reprographic copying of paper to paper and paper to acetate of multiple copies for the benefit of you and your students.
Further, the Licence permits the creation of digitised copies from the original source provided that the use is for educational purposes only. Digital copies may only be placed in VLE and there are a number of restrictions on the work that can be scanned. It does not permit blanket scanning or commercial use. It is worth noting that the licence expands rights to make copies for disabled users. For more information and guidance see the CLA licence information.
An intitive called Creative Commons has produced several easy to use and apply licences that can be added to e-Learning resources to enable sharing.
Related Resources
© Crown Copyright