These are just some of the ways people use and share published information in companies today. Collaboration is essential in modern, efficient organizations, and digital sharing of copyright-protected content is one of its major components.

The use of copyrighted works – in a particular text and image-based works – is intensive and pervasive in most companies, and not only those with a strong research component. Employees need to use and share valuable information from print and digital sources for everything from research, marketing, and public relations to training and product management. In today’s fast-paced, global working environment, employees increasingly rely on timely access to information in order to innovate, collaborate, and stay ahead of the competition.

Organizations use many different types of content, including scientific and technical information, financial, legal and business information, statistics, news, graphs and photographs, and other images. Employees may obtain this information from a variety of sources including scientific, technical and trade journals, books, magazines, newspapers, websites, and blogs. Access is typically gained through subscriptions with publishers or agencies, from document delivery and press-clipping agencies, and from corporate intranets and the Internet.

Even companies that try their best to protect the IP of third parties can experience difficulties in obtaining the necessary permissions for employees to share content legally. Obtaining permission from copyright holders can be a cumbersome and time-consuming process, especially if efficient, flexible licensing sources are not used. Businesses need to identify the works to be used, locate the relevant right owners or licensing agencies and, finally, acquire the rights.