Challenges in seeking permission

Various potential challenges can arise when applying for permission to use resources or make readings accessible. These include:

• Cost: Some copyright holders such as large publishers may charge a fee for allowing readings to be used or for digital versions of the reading to be placed on a website. This may be a one-off fee, or may be a yearly charge. In some cases, this may be a reasonable cost for the reading, and in other cases the cost may be too high.
• Number of copies: In addition to cost, some copyright holders may allow users access to a resource but restrict the number of copies that can be printed or downloaded (which would only be possible by introducing some form of digital rights management). This would be manageable if the reading is intended for a particular programme or course, where there is a defined number of students, but more difficult if the reading is not linked to a specific programme or course.
• Number of words: Some copyright holders, particularly journals, may place a restriction that only a certain number of words (such as the abstract) from an article or reading can be made digitally accessible, but that the reading itself needs to be downloaded by each individual user from the ( journal) website at a cost.
• Accessibility: A reading may come in different formats – including OCR scanning, PDF or a normal Microsoft Word document. It may happen that the copyright holder will allow users to access the document online, but will not allow users to download the reading onto their computers. This could be a problem for those users without regular internet access.
  Assuming downloading of a reading is allowed, a PDF version may pose a problem as users will not be able to adapt the document. Additionally, some versions of Adobe restrict access in some way through digital rights management, such as only allowing printing of a certain number of pages.
• Security: Some copyright holders may be concerned with security, and may wish to know the different types (and/or number) of users accessing their documents, and they may require some security – such as password protection – on the website on which you make the work available.
• Interoperability: If licences are sought for a collection of readings for one particular course, it may happen that different types of licences may be granted to different readings. If a person wishes to modify the course in some way, the different licences for the different readings may be difficult to negotiate, and some licences are not compatible with others. For example, some licences can be quite restrictive, such as BY-NC-ND and BY-NC-SA, which are only compatible with themselves – as shown in the diagrams below.

This diagram was created by using a compatibility wizard.

Table adapted from ScottFisk, CC BY-NC