While Copyright Clearance Center's 25th anniversary year has been marked by increased efforts at education and enforcement aimed at copy shops that reproduce coursepacks, the CCC has also been working on what v-p of licensing and rights-holder relations Bob Weiner described as a "suite" of copyright integration services to make it easier for users to comply with copyright laws.
One service, a permissions gateway introduced in February by XanEdu, a unit of ProQuest Company that publishes online and offline course materials for the higher education market, offers seamless integration with the CCC's rights database. By enabling XanEdu to streamline the way it secures permissions for coursepacks, the company has become a high-volume user of the CCC, processing thousands of copyright licensing transactions a week. "We've seen a significant jump in productivity as a result of integrating our application with CCC's rights database," said David Prichard, v-p of sales and marketing at XanEdu. The permissions direct service, which is currently being tested by Ex Libris, a supplier of software solutions to libraries and information centers, uses its SFX link server to connect to a specified area in the CCC's Web site.
The CCC plans to add additional integration clients and services in the near future. For now, the first two services in the suite represent another step toward making copyright compliance easier. Several years ago the CCC added RightsLink, which puts a direct link on a publisher's Web site to the CCC's site. In addition, notes Weiner, "the suite of services creates a channel for publishers to get more exposure. They have a chance to grow the reuse market and expand its revenue."
Given that the CCC expects to distribute $75 million to publishers this year, that market is increasingly important. According to Weiner, "in the past 10 years the CCC's revenues and distributions to publishers has grown 20-fold."
