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As a reprographic rights association, we have crucial roles in administering licenses for the secondary uses of literary works and act on behalf of authors and publishers to collect and distribute royalties. We are a not-for-profit, licensed body recognized by the UAE Ministry of Economy, which enables us to provide licenses to Higher Education institutions (HEI).Consequently, these permissions are crucial both for HEI (the users) and authors and publishers (the rightsholders). They allow authors and publishers to get their work adequately remunerated while helping HEI avoid copyright infringements. That way, the Higher Education license gives these institutions the possibility to enrich the students’ experience by giving them access to copyrighted material managed under a legal framework that values the creations of rightsholders. 

Licenses and permission play a crucial role in authorizing access to literary copyrighted-protected materials. They allow authors and publishers to give their material a wider use, contributing to spreading knowledge across educational institutions without legal infringements. ERRA is in charge of facilitating this access to literary materials authorizing the use for educational purposes, through the collective management of reprographic rights. Today, with the vast amount of hard and soft copy material, ERRA becomes essential to give Higher Education institutions the possibility of improving the quality of the educational content. As a licensed association recognized by the Ministry of Economy of the UAE, we are enabled to cover the following aspects:

• What material can you copy?
• How much can you copy?
• How can you share this material with students?

In our commitment to preserving creators’ work and spreading their content across educational institutions, we work diligently to guarantee an accurate distribution of literary creations and their correspondent fees. That’s why every year, at ERRA, we perform a data collection exercise with license holders. This procedure is vital as copying data allows our association to guarantee a fair distribution of the money collected from license holders to copyright owners.

Therefore, ERRA collects all types of copying data, both from hard and soft copy publications. In addition, we are aware that the rising number of education institutions adopting this content reproduction method emphasized the importance of using library management systems and reading list software. That way, data collection, and copyright management become more efficient. 

When it comes to sharing and reproducing copyrighted content, it’s crucial to understand what the limitations and exclusions for the use of the material are. While photocopying literary works allows a broader availability and spread of knowledge across educational institutions, it also must be subject to copyright requirements. This guarantees authors and publishers a fair remuneration of the use of their works, and the users a fair use and access to the copyrighted works. and royalties for their work. For us at ERRA, it is vital to track records of what resources have been copied by our license holders. That way, we can ensure the license income is correctly distributed to rightsholders. In addition, at the same time, the regulatory framework of ERRA provides institutions the guidelines of what’s the content that can be used and its limitations.