NLA land £40,000 from a County Council for copyright breaches

The Newspaper Licensing Agency is proclaiming a legal victory after it won out-of-court damages for breach of copyright from major county council in England.

NAPA members will recall that the Association has had a long-running dispute with the NLA to seek payment of the royalties it collects on behalf of copyright holders.

That campaign continues.

The NLA tell us that it was a term of the settlement that the name of the council should not be disclosed.

Here is the press release issued today by the NLA:-

FACED with the threat of legal action, one of England’s largest county councils has paid compensation in excess of £40,000 for employee re-use of published material from magazines, books and journals.

Copyright and other forms of intellectual property ownership are the lifeblood of the UK economy, protecting creative industries and creating revenue and jobs.

Nevertheless, The Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd., through its compliance arm, Copywatch, has once again reached an out-of-court settlement with a major council for copyright infringement.

The money from the settlement will now be distributed to authors, visual artists and publishers. CLA issues licences to thousands of organisations in the education, business and public sectors. The licences permit holders to legally copy and share articles from millions of publications.

Copywatch will continue to target illegal copying in both the local authority and corporate sectors, placing unlicensed organisations at serious risk of expensive legal action for copyright infringement.

Copywatch offers rewards of up to £100,000 for evidence of unlicensed copying - to learn more visit www.copywatch.org

For further information about this story, the Copywatch campaign or CLA’s licences, please contact Daniel Elsey on 020 7400 3135 or daniel.elsey@cla.co.uk\r\n