Church Licences

CLA Church Licence

A typographical right exists in most printed publications, meaning permission is required to photocopy from them.

The CLA Church Licence enables you to legally photocopy, scan, and share pages from a huge range of publications commonly used in churches, including activity sheets, study guides, journals, magazines, bibles, and children's books.

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Freedom to make the copies you need

Photocopy

Copy and share pages from a vast range of books, magazines, guides, activity sheets, and typeset documents.

Scan

Scan content from publications to share via digital projection, email, or for archive or reference.

File-share

Duplicate electronic documents. Circulate PDF files by email, or download documents from a shared online app.

See ourTerms of Agreementfor more details.

The benefit to your church

Copyright protects the typesetting in most publications first published in the last 25 years, even if the content (article/song etc.) itself is no longer in copyright. Always check the copyright information printed within the publication for details.

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CLA Church Licence Q&A

Are all publications covered?

The CLA Church Licence covers millions of non-music publications. To copy from church songbooks and sheet music publications, you will require the CCLI Music Reproduction Licence. To copy from mainstream newspapers, you will require a licence from NLA Media Access. You can confirm if a publication is covered using the Search function within the CCLI Reporting website.

How much of a publication we can copy?

Copies made must not exceed 5% of the publication, one whole article, or a single chapter. Some publications, such as many popular bible translations, allow a proportion to be copied without permission. Always check the copyright information within the publication for clarification.

How many copies we can make?

The number of copies you make depends on your licence size category. For example, a category B size church (50-99) can make up to 99 copies of any section of a publication under their licence.

Do we need to report which publications we’ve copied from?

Yes. Please report all publications you copy from on an ongoing basis. This is simple to do via CCLI’s Reporting website.

You may find it helpful to print out our Copy Prompt Sheet and place this close to your photocopier.

Can we keep copies we’ve made if we no longer hold the licence?

You may keep copies only while your licence is active. If your licence expires, you should destroy or delete any copies made under the licence.