Do you copy or share printed newspaper articles?

Date Published: 03 August 2020

Aberdeenshire Council no longer has permission to scan, share or save print news articles – and all services need to be aware of the change to reduce the risk of fines.

 

The only exception to that rule is within education, where a licence is in place to allow newspapers to be used in the classroom as part of the curriculum.

 

For a number of years, the council has paid thousands of pounds for a licence that allowed for the occasional copying and sharing of articles (e.g. photocopying printed articles or saving and sharing them digitally).

 

With changes in the way the council monitors media coverage, and the introduction of access to an online newspaper database, the licence is no longer in place.

 

What this means in practical terms is that nobody within the council (other than in a classroom setting) should:​


 

​​​• Reproduce any newspaper or magazine content. This includes photocopying, faxing and digital copying, scanning, emailing, or hosting on an intranet site
• Print cuttings from newspaper and magazine websites
• Reproduce cuttings from a media monitoring agency or PR agency
• Store or host cuttings, text extracts and headlines on corporate websites. This includes saving articles to your computer
• Supply newspaper/magazine content to a 3rd party/client


 
You can still share links to articles on media websites, and if you or your team buy newspapers or regularly visit news sites, that's fine. But you mustn't copy or share any content directly, and that includes manually typing out headlines or sections of articles.

 

But you can still direct people to where they can find an article if you see something that may be of interest to a colleague.

 

Aberdeenshire Council has access to PressReader, a comprehensive online database of newspapers and magazines. It includes local titles like the Press & Journal and Evening Express, although many of the weekly papers aren’t carried on the site.

 

The site allows those working for Aberdeenshire Council to view articles for free, and it's possible to share a link to a story without copying the story itself. And you can find some of the local weeklies on https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/.

 

If you have any questions about the change, please email news@aberdeenshire.gov.uk and if you are sent copies of articles, please refer the sender to this guidance or ask them to get in touch.

 

For more information on potential breaches of copyright, the company which issues licenses for copying articles, NLA Media Access, has some helpful information on its website.