Copyright Clearance Center Extends Licensing Services to Library/Higher Education Vendors
While software and systems vendors wrestle with how to lock down content and software with digital rights functionality, Copyright Clearance Center uses the most powerful force in the world to enforce the rights of copyrighted materials distributors: the human mind. Its redistribution licensing capabilities are enforced at the institutional level, but through its evolving online services CCC provides individual users the ability to comply with - and pay for - the rights to redistribute and reprint copyrighted materials on a voluntary basis when fair use policies don't fit the circumstances. The latest moves by CCC noted in EContent Magazine provide Ex Libris and XanEdu the ability to offer their users relicensing of content via academic courseware and online library services. This should be very fruitful for CCC in both the long run and the short run. In the short run they've managed to target course materials that are high-ticket items with a strong potential for redistribution at a premium, while in the long run they're getting a new generation of users used to the idea of complying with copyright requirements voluntarily in an easy-to-use manner. Making money in content technologies is as much about cultivating profitable habits in users as it is in creating profitable content.