CLA launches Multinational Licence

Our friend and colleague Rebecca Dimaridis (Jeffrey Russell Green solicitors), who is making something of a name for herself in this area, writes:

Readers may recall my 2-part report on the 2010 Open Meeting of the Copyright Licensing Agency, see here and here, last October. On Friday, the CLA launched its Multinational Licence. Readers can find more details on the CLA website - but don't be fooled into thinking this is the only information about the licence on the website. Just click on the links available and you will travel down a different path of the website, and there is a fair bit of information - too much to get through on Easter Saturday, so I'm only going to give a brief report at this stage! Perhaps the good folk at the CLA will put all the information in PDF documents on the website at some stage, so we don't all have to worry about whether we've forgotten to click on some vitally important link. Or perhaps I'm just going to have to print off all the pages after the (extended-thanks to William & Kate) break... The Licence's big claim is that, other than for the "Excluded Categories and Works", one single Multinational Licence gives the same rights "to every colleague, in any country, without disrupting the workflow of your organisation". Excluded Categories and Works include music, maps and newspapers. There are several categories of licences, broadly for the business sector, public sector and education sector. A "law licence" application can be found under the "business" sector. The relevant page informs us that the terms of the licence are currently being revised, however the current terms apply to pre-15 January 2011 licences (what does this mean for licences between 15 January to the date the new terms are finalised?).
 For licences issued post-April 2011, there is a host of Multinational Licence support material, including an Application Form, an Explanatory Leaflet and Copying Guidelines. One thing that I found confirmed on the Copying Guidelines is a note that states that users can copy up to 5% of a publication, a single chapter of a book or single article from a periodical (whichever is the greater). Users can even undertake a Risk Assessment on this page. When I do review the documents in detail, I will be keeping in mind the the wish-list that Philip Ditchfield of Glaxo SmithKline PLC put forward last October, i.e. is the new Multinational Licence, easy to understand, user-friendly, up-to-date, comprehensive, and inclusive of all publishers (big and small) and all countries?
 For the time being however, there is finally a breeze coming through our flat, and for the first time I can remember in my almost-4 years (on the 25th!) in the UK there is a lightning storm going on outside. I really miss them so I'm off to watch!