published material
How much will I pay?
- Copyright permit fees —'one-off' requests
- Copright licence fees — annual coverage
- Combined copyright and scanning licence (CSL) fees
- Derived materials copyright licence (DMC) fees
Copyright permit fees
BGS fees for issuing a copyright permit take into account many different variables - enquiries will therefore be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The minimum fee for a copyright permit is £50 + VAT (at the standard rate). This copyright fee does not include the cost of purchase of the BGS material. With the exception of photographic materials or costs of supplying bespoke graphics which is handled separately, those seeking a copyright permit are expected to already be in possession of the BGS material that they wish to reproduce e.g. maps, reports, guides and other published literature.
In some cases, copyright permission fees can be waived when taking the following discretionary factors into account:
- type and level of use of the material
- term or duration of the reproduction of the material
- whether the use fits within our remit in terms of the promotion of geosciences locally, nationally and internationally
- special cases, where the enquirer is from a registered charity or is a representative of specialist interest group whose geological remit BGS wishes to support by waiving copyright charges.
Copyright licence fees
The total licence fee payable is comprised of two elements: (i) a standard £50 handling fee; and (ii) a variable annual reproduction fee.
All reproduction fees are calculated by reference to the scale of the BGS source materials (whether published maps or licensed digital data), number of extracts to be reproduced and the reproduction size of the extracts.
The way in which the total number of extracts to be reproduced is calculated can be shown by the following examples:
- If your report contained five BGS extracts, and ten copies of each report were required, the total number of extracts would be 1 (master copy) x 5 (BGS extracts) x 10 (the number of copies required by the client), which amounts to a total of 50 extracts to be reproduced.
- If two or more different extracts are being made from the same publication the source document is being used independently two or more times i.e. 250 copies of 3 different extracts = 750 copies. In this case the user would need to hold a licence to cover them for a minimum of 750 extracts per year.
The tables below list the basic units (the calculation of number of extracts multiplied by size of reproduction) on which the reproduction fees are based.
ANNUAL REPRODUCTION FEES FOR EXTRACTS FROM BGS MAPPING AT 1:625 000, 1:250 000, 1:100 000, 1:63 360, 1:50 000 AND 1:25 000 SCALES
| Size of extracts to be reproduced and charge per extract. (£ reproduction fee)* | |||||
| No.of extracts | A4 x 1 | A3 x 1 | A2 x 1 | A1 x 1 | A0 x 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 to 99 | 1.00 | 1.90 | 3.60 | 4.20 | 10.50 |
| 100 to 249 | 0.86 | 1.60 | 2.90 | 4.00 | 9.25 |
| 250 to 499 | 0.72 | 1.14 | 2.16 | 3.20 | 8.28 |
| 500 to 999 | 0.57 | 0.83 | 1.37 | 2.28 | 4.50 |
| 1000 to 1499 | 0.33 | 0.54 | 0.90 | 1.50 | 2.51 |
| 1500 to 2999 | 0.27 | 0.44 | 0.74 | 1.25 | 2.10 |
| 3000 + | 0.20 | 0.38 | 0.72 | 0.84 | 2.05 |
| * Excludes VAT. All fees are subject to VAT at the standard rate. | |||||
ANNUAL REPRODUCTION FEES FOR EXTRACTS FROM BGS MAPPING AT 1:10 560 AND 1:10 000 SCALES
| Size of extracts to be reproduced and charge per extract (£ reproduction fee)* | ||
| No. of extracts | A4 x 1 | A3 x 1 |
|---|---|---|
| 30 to 49 | 2.50 | 4.00 |
| 50 to 99 | 2.40 | 3.80 |
| 100 to 249 | 2.33 | 3.72 |
| 250 to 499 | 2.25 | 3.60 |
| 500 + | 2.20 | 3.52 |
| * Excludes VAT. All fees are subject to VAT at the standard rate. | ||
The minimum total licence fee is £100 + VAT (at the standard rate).
Please see the examples below for the costing of the different licences:
Copyright and scanning licence fees (CSL)
A combined copyright and scanning licence (CSL) allows for reproduction of extracts from analogue (paper) BGS geological maps for use in analogue (paper/hard copy) or non-queryable electronic format (e.g secured .pdf files) at the following scale ranges:
- 1:625 000, 1:250 000, 1:100 000, 1:63 360, 1:50 000 and 1:25 000 scales,
- 1:10 560 and 1:10 000 scales.
Using the fee table for the 1:625 000–1:25 000 scale range, as a licensee, you may wish to make up to 50 copies of a single extract from a BGS publication, annually. The total licence fee for the reproduction of 50 extracts of up to A4 in size is £100 + VAT (£50 handling fee + £50 reproduction fee), and the annual charge for 50 extracts of up to A3 in size is £145 + VAT (£50 handling fee + £95 reproduction fee).
Licences can be customised to suit the number of reproductions your organisation intends to make in a given year. You may choose to have a licence that covers differing extract sizes i.e. 100 in A4 size and 50 in A3 size, whereby according to the table there will be a total licence fee of £231 + VAT (£50 handling fee + reproduction fee for 100 x A4 = £86 + reproduction fee for 50 x A3 = £95 + VAT).
Derived material copyright licence (DMC) fees
A derived material copyright licence (DMC) allows for reproduction of images derived from BGS digital data held under licence, for use in analogue (paper/hard copy) or non-queryable electronic format (e.g. secured .pdf files) at the following scale ranges:
- 1:625 000, 1:250 000, 1:100 000, 1:63 360, 1:50 000 and 1:25 000 scales
- 1:10 560 and 1:10 000 scales.
A BGS digital data licensee is permitted to reproduce extracts from the data up to A3 for use in external analogue (paper/hard copy) or non-queryable electronic (e.g. secured .pdf) format: to meet a public task duty; fulfil a statutory requirement; and/or as part of academic or other non-commercial research; under the terms of their digital data licence. An additional Derived Material Copyright licence is only required if another type of use (e.g. commercial use) is required.
Using the reproduction fee table for the 1:625 000–1:25 000 scale range, as a licensee, you may wish to make up to 50 copies of images derived from the BGS digital data supplied under licence, annually. The total licence fee for the reproduction of 50 extracts of up to A4 in size is £100 + VAT (£50 handling fee + £50 reproduction fee), and the annual charge for 50 extracts of up to A3 in size is £145 + VAT (£50 handling fee + £95 reproduction fee).
Licences can be customised to suit the number of reproductions your organisation intends to make in a given year. You may choose to have a licence that covers differing extract sizes i.e. 100 in A4 size and 50 in A3 size, whereby according to the table there will be a total licence fee of £231 + VAT (£50 handling fee + reproduction fee for 100 x A4 = £86 + reproduction fee for 50 x A3 = £95 + VAT).
A corporate licence is available for either licence model. Charges are based on the size of extracts to be reproduced and the cumulative number of copies made per annum + £40 for each additional site. For example, the charge for a cumulative total of 250 extracts of up to A4 in size, covering three sites, is £310 + VAT (£50 handling fee + reproduction fee for 250 x A4 at £180 + 2 x £40 at £80).
