ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to cover the area of collective or so-called secondary licensing, whereby the use of limited amounts of copyright material – extracts of text, photographs, illustrations, diagrams, graphs, etc. – can be licensed, usually via a Reproduction Rights Organization (RRO) aka a Collective Management Organization (CMO). The resulting licence revenue is distributed to authors and publishers. Many countries now have a national RRO, although the basis on which these organizations operate varies from country to country. Although newer methods of technology may now make photocopying
seem outmoded, the area of print-on-paper reprography does still remain, although it is decreasing. Office copiers are now extremely sophisticated, with technologies permitting computer files to be stored on a hard drive, sent on disk or via ISDN (International Standard Digital Network) or in hard copy which can be scanned, digitally stored and then printed and bound, with a very high standard of reproduction for both text and illustrations. Many of the organizations which acquire licences to copy have increasingly wished to do so by scanning, and licences have been extended accordingly; most licences also now include the right to copy from digital publications and websites if the rightsholders concerned have allowed this.
