Copyright Law

Copyright law has been a fact of life for many decades. The current copyright law in the UK is The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, and its amendments. It exists in almost everything we use and is a right granted in law to creators of work including newspapers.

The basic rule is that, with a few minor exceptions, if an organisation wants to make a copy of published work it will need a licence from the newspaper owner or magazine in order to do so. If an organisation wants to make copies it will need individual publisher permission or a licence issued by the NLA.

Latest News

• The NLA pushes for clarity on web licensing with High Court action May 2010
• The NLA launches new public relations agency licence March 2010
• The NLA commences web licensing but suspends invoicing January 2010 
• The NLA offers access to newspaper content outside the UK.
• The NLA shares the results of its latest Customer Satisfaction Survey

For further information view the latest press releases.

Corporate Information

The NLA is also engaged in supporting a number of key initiatives in the wider newspaper industry including:-

Journalism Diversity Fund. The Fund is designed to help students from diverse backgrounds to train as journalists. The NLA has contributed over £481k to the fund and continues to donate over £100k annually.

News Library service. Promoting newspapers in schools the NLA's News Library service is a free online service giving schools access to newspaper clippings.  

ACAP.  The NLA supports and funds ACAP which provides content owners with a tool to enable them to communicate their copyright terms and conditions online.