With Generative AI now embedded in everyday workflows, understanding what you can and can’t copy has become even more important. Public sector organisations, from local authorities and public bodies to police and fire services, handle vast amounts of published content every day. Whether it’s briefing documents, press cuttings or digital reports, the challenge is clear: how do you reuse this material responsibly without infringing copyright law? The CLA Public Administration Licence gives your organisation the confidence to reuse published content responsibly and compliantly, enabling lawful reuse of published content, all while supporting the creative economy.
Five Public Administration Licence Essentials
1. Now Includes Workplace Generative AI Permissions
The workplace is evolving, and so are copyright risks. With the rise of Generative AI (GAI) tools, professionals increasingly use published content in GAI prompts to generate summaries, reports and creative outputs.
The CLA Public Administration Licence now includes extended permissions for the use of included third-party content as prompts in permitted generative AI tools, subject to licence terms. This ensures your team can use GAI tools responsibly and compliantly, helping to shape and support your organisational Generative AI policy.
2. No NLA Repertoire Crossover
One common misconception is that a single licence covers all published material. In reality, CLA and NLA Media Access cover separate repertoires.
The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and NLA Media Access (NLA) are separate licensing bodies. There is no crossover in the publications and repertoire covered by the two licences. If your public sector organisation shares, saves, prints or makes copies of any published content from magazines, journals, newspapers, trade press or websites, it’s likely you require both a CLA and NLA licence to ensure copyright compliance.
3. Press Cuttings: Multiple Recipients Permitted
Without the right permissions, forwarding a press clipping to multiple recipients, even within your own organisation, can infringe copyright law. The CLA Public Administration Licence addresses this by allowing lawful internal reuse of press cuttings supplied by licensed agencies.
Specifically, the licence allows more than one designated recipient within your organisation to receive the coverage, and it allows further sharing, saving, and copying of that material internally – often referred to as “multiple access” and “multiple users/seats”. This means you can circulate coverage for briefings, reports and internal communications without fear of infringement.
4. Permits Digital Content Reuse
Gone are the days when copyright compliance only meant photocopying. Today’s workplace involves digital-to-digital copying, copy and paste, screenshotting, saving to intranets and email. The Public Administration Licence covers a wide range of formats, including:
- Copying PDFs from electronic subscriptions
- Republishing up to five articles at any one time per year on your organisation’s website from participating titles
- Saving to an intranet
- Screenshotting, copy and paste
This flexibility ensures that whether you’re preparing a policy briefing or a training module, your content use remains lawful and efficient.
5. Supports Governance and Compliance Frameworks
Copyright compliance isn’t just a legal requirement; it’s a cornerstone of good governance. By adopting the CLA Public Administration Licence, your organisation demonstrates a commitment to responsible content use and risk management.
The licence provides annual blanket cover, reducing administrative burden and safeguarding against reputational and financial risks. Plus, as a not-for-profit organisation, CLA channels licence fees back into the creative industries, ensuring authors, publishers and visual artists are fairly remunerated. In short, you’re not just protecting your organisation; you’re supporting the UK’s creative economy.
Why it matters in the public sector?
Public sector organisations rely on published content to inform decisions, shape policy and communicate effectively. Without proper licensing, everyday routine actions such as sharing an article or prompting a GAI tool with copyrighted content, tasks most teams don’t realise can lead to copyright infringement. The CLA Public Administration Licence offers peace of mind, enabling lawful reuse of millions of titles while adapting to modern challenges, such as the use of published content to prompt generative AI tools.
Next steps
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