What Can I Do With This API?

James BennettLicence Development Manager

About CLA

• The Copyright Licensing Agency is owned and directed by UK publishers (PLS) and authors (ALCS) and distributes a proportion of revenues to visual creators via DACS

• CLA sells collective licences to businesses and institutions which permit copying of limited extracts from books, journals and magazines

• Annual fee is distributed to rightsholders based on the survey data we collect

• CLA distributed £71m to rightsholders in 2011/12

• CLA is a not-for-profit organisation funded by a subvention on the licence fee prior to distribution

Benefits of licences

• Range of licences tailored to each sector

• Photocopying, scanning and digital copies

• Emailing internally

• PowerPoint and Intranet

• Extent limits: normally only one chapter, one article or up to 5% of the work can be copied

• Users must have legitimate access to the original

• No republishing or marketing use

Repertoire

• CLA licences allow copying and reuse of content from almost all printed books, journals and magazines published in the UK and over 30 other countries

• Copying from print is on an opt-out basis –there is a list of excluded publishers and works

• Digital publications including eBooks, digital serials and websites are included on an opt-in basis by publisher

• Total repertoire listed is >4m titles, but licences permit copying from >30m

Printed books, magazines and

journals

Digital publications

Websites

The challenge

• When licences were just for photocopying, licensees just needed to check a list of excluded publishers

• This has grown and become more granular

• Copying from digital publications requires checking that the work is included

• List of included publishers has grown

We needed an easy way for licensees to check whether a work was OK to copy – and what they were permitted do in simple terms

The initial solution

Website lookup tool: challenges

• Dealing with ‘everything but exclusions’ in a search tool

• Variations across different licences

• Title search vs publisher search

• Lack of data on new and overseas works

• Customer expectations

BUT

• Positive user experience

• Foundation for further developments

Website lookup tool

• Hard-wired to our database

• Expensive to change even the UI

• No user data collected

• Poor mobile experience

• Limited scope for extending use

“Let’s build an app!”

The CLA App

• Decided on Apple and Android platforms at early stage as they have the largest market share

• Needed an API to ‘talk’ to the database

• Barcode scanning is key feature

• Fast response time

• Replicate results of website search

• Limited additional information included, refers to website

Developing the CLA App: Five Lessons

1. Have a very clear scope before you go to any developer

2. If you have strict brand requirements, think carefully about how it will look

3. Source your developer carefully

4. If you’re building an app from an API, ensure the developers fully understand the way in which it functions

5. When submitting the app to the App store, think carefully about what supporting information might be needed

Developing the API: Five Lessons

1. Build on your system’s existing logic wherever possible

2. Don’t expect developers to understand your business rules, or to listen carefully when you try to explain them

3. Find out what standards are used for this kind of information and use them – talk to your potential users

4. Scanning a barcode and extracting an 8-,10- or 13-digit ISN from a barcode are two different things

5. Test, test and test again

Try the app

• Available now on iPhone and Android devices

• Free to download, no subscription

• Works for all CLA blanket licences

• If your organisation is licensed, give it a try

• Feedback welcomed

Search ‘CLA Title Search’:

“We’ve got an app, what can we do with this API?”

Benefits and Opportunities

• Licence types can be amended in the app without a software update

• Collects usage data on successful and unsuccessful searches

• Mini-search facility on website

But, most importantly, opens up opportunities to collaborate with third parties...

Third party use

• Information it provides is relevant to all educational institutions in the UK and more than 6000 corporate and public organisations

• Free to use with simple T&Cs

• Several third parties are already using or testing the API

• We are responsive and flexible to approaches

Who do we want to work with?

• Information management system providers

• Coursepack, reading list and university library management system providers

• Individual HEIs

• Individual corporate licensees with bespoke information management systems

Challenges so far

• Slow to get engagement

• Systems built for client to add API, rather than provider as value-add

• CLA not ‘in this space’ so lack of contacts and industry experience

• Specialised API lacks functionality

• User must already own copy, so little potential for commercial partnerships e.g. Amazon

• Only works if you need to check – some sectors are less compliant than others

Future plans

• New website-based search using API, to deliver better data

• Enhance data so fewer not founds

• Fuzzy search on included/excluded publishers

• Price book for document delivery

• App 2.0 to deliver survey data

• App 2.0 to link to transactional permissions

Further help for users of copyright content online

• Industry-standard icon developed for use on included websites

• Includes optional usage terms

Visit whatcanidowiththiscontent.com for more information

www.cla.co.uk