Who are we?
The Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) was established in 1981 by the UK publishing industry. Its role is to:
- Facilitate licensing solutions for educational establishments, public bodies and businesses that copy from text based copyright material published in print and digital formats.
- Ensure licensing income is distributed accurately, efficiently and transparently to those UK publishers whose publications are used.
- Strive to ensure an orderly market place for both users and rightsholders. This in turn promotes respect for copyright which is so vital to the publishing business.
PLS is owned by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, the Professional Publishers Association, and the Publishers Association.
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What do we do?
PLS represents the interests of publishers in the collective licensing of photocopying and digitisation.
Together with the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society, PLS owns and directs the Copyright Licensing Agency and works in partnership with the Design and Artists Copyright Society.
Who do we work with?
PLS also works closely with the Association of Online Publishers, European Publishers Council, Federation of European Publishers, Independent Publishers Guild, International Publishers Association, and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers.
PLS is a member of the Accessibility Action Group; Alliance Against Intellectual Property Theft; Automated Content Access Protocol; Book Industry Communication; British Copyright Council; British Literary and Artistic Association; Crossref; Digital Content Forum; Digital Preservation Coalition; EDItEUR; International Digital Object Identifier Foundation; International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations; National Information Standards Organisation; and UK Serials Group.
Please click to view the organisational diagram
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Mission statement
PLS is dedicated to advancing publishers’ interests through protecting and strengthening the copyright framework. PLS currently achieves this through its core functions:
- Managing voluntary licensing schemes in the UK, promoting voluntary licensing systems in the UK and abroad, and optimising revenue streams for UK mandating publishers.
- An organisation to which publishers can turn in confidence knowing that those rights which they wish to have administered collectively will be protected and exploited according to their wishes.
- Facilitating an orderly legal marketplace for rights by providing licensing solutions that protect rights, provide revenue, and satisfy both publishers and users.
- Actively identifying and containing threats to publishers’ rights in the context of copyright and licensing.
- Safeguarding publishers’ interests within the internationalcommunity of reproduction rights organisations (RROs) and supporting the publishing industry in all licensing matters.
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