Although it is illegal to make copies of tapes and CD’s without permission, Highland Council has a licence from the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) which allows schools to record copyright music under the control of MCPS, MRS and BRITICO and to re-record sound recordings issued by BPICAD members subject to the following conditions.

• The record/tape/ CD must be the property of the Council. This does not include teachers’ personal copies unless they are sold to the school and a receipt obtained.

• The copy shall only be made and used on premises used for curricular purposes by the Council.

• The copy shall only be used for curricular purposes.

• The copy shall be labelled to show the details contained on the original label as well as the declaration that the copy is made  under special licence and that it must be used for curricular purposes only.

• The copy may be used as part of a tape/slide presentation, but special licenses are required for video/ movie soundtracks.

• Teachers’ Centres and Resources Centres may make up to 12 copies of a programme containing short extracts (4 minutes or less) of commercially produced records, CD’s or tapes. These copies must be properly labelled as described above and in addition the label should state that the re-recorded extracts have been included by the permission of the copyright owner and that further copying is prohibited. Each centre must keep a register of all copies made with individual reference numbers for all copies.

MCPS Media Licensing (http://www.mcps.co.uk/medialicensing/) is the main point of contact for all music clearance advice.  MCPS Scotland have an office in Glasgow.  They are very helpful in answering any queries and may grant licenses at modest prices to enable schools to make up their own music CD’s for sale to the general public.

Contact:
Duncan McCrone
Scottish Manager – MCPS
3 St George’s Studios
93-97 St George’s Road
Glasgow
G3 6JA

Tel. 0141 333 1159
e-mail  duncan.mccrone@mcps.co.uk

Web:  www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/

Under a licence agreement between the Authority and the Educational Recording Agency (ERA), schools may record off-air, copy and retain most broadcast material excluding Open University output. Recordings must be done by or on behalf of the school, by council employees on Authority premises. Teachers may also record programmes at home for educational use only.

All recordings must be clearly marked with the date and title of the original recording together with the printed statement “educational use only”.

It follows that most off-air music radio and television programmes may be copied and re-copied under the terms of the ERA licence.  Fuller details of the ERA scheme may be found under “Off-Air Recordings”.