News
Continuation of the copyright buy-out agreement for UASs 2025
19 December 2024
The Vereniging Hogescholen (VH) and Stichting UvO have agreed to extend the Easy Access agreement (hbo) for a period of one year, until 31 December 2025. However, important improvements are still necessary. The contract will therefore be extended under six conditions that are explained in the 2025 confirmation letter (in Dutch).
The collective buy-out agreement will therefore also remain in force in 2025 for all universities of applied sciences (UASs, or 'HBO's') that the VH represents. The conditions remain the same. Both paper readers/syllabi and digital reuse (on Brightspace, Canvas or Moodle, for example) have largely been bought off. Lecturers may copy up to 50 pages from publications (articles, books, etc.), provided that this is a maximum of 25% of the original work.
New website
17 December 2024
The Stichting UvO website has been updated. The site is easier to use and offers a clear overview for educational institutions. Visitors can now quickly and easily navigate to the latest news, our services and information about licenses.
In addition, the web portal will be further updated in 2025 to make it even better for users. Stichting UvO is looking forward to the improvements that will be implemented in the near future.
Page rates 2025 announced
26 November 2024
The page rates for the year 2025 have recently been set. These rates are indexed annually in accordance with the CAO wage index for a whole previous year (inflation correction).
Payment of copyright compensation from higher education
18 November 2024
Recently, Stichting UvO paid out a fee to involved Dutch publishers for the reuse of copyrighted material in higher education: the reader compensation. More information can be found in our portal.
UvO paid out more than 10.9 million euros to rights holders in 2023
9 July 2024
Educational institutions in the Netherlands pays a fee for reproductions of copyrighted works for educational purposes. Stichting UvO collects these fees on behalf of publishers and their authors. The amont of collected fees has gradually increased in recent years. This increase can be directly attributed to the improved buy-out schemes which are closed with universities and colleges.
The gross distribution in 2023 amounted to € 10.9 million. This is considerably more than the previous reporting year. Because more was collected in 2023, there was also more money available to distribute. Additionally, funds were offered to 'atypical rightsholders' (non-publishers).
UNL and Stichting UvO sign new Easy Access scheme 2023-2025
23 May 2024
The universities of the Netherlands (UNL, formerly VSNU) and Stichting UvO have signed the new Easy Access Agreement (EAR II) for the period 2023-2025. With this agreement, universities buy out the reuse of short sections (up to 25 pages) and longer sections up to a maximum of 40 pages. The reuse of images and sheet music is also covered.
During the term of the scheme, the buyout amount will gradually increase due to a rise in reuse, as observed by UvO. Due to publishers' concerns about substitute reuse, the maximum number of pages covered by the scheme has been reduced from 50 to 40 pages.
The parties have agreed to use SURF's CopyrightCheck to measure actual usage – its implementation has already started. Ultimately, this will allow us to measure the volume of reuse, providing a solid basis for a fair compensation. Additionally, we expect the insights to contribute to an equitable distribution of buyout funds among publishers.
The parties are still in good discussions about the 40+ reports. The exact specifications will be drawn up within three months. The scheme is retroactively valid from 1-1-2023.
Continuation of the copyright buy-out scheme for universities of applied sciences in 2024
19 March 2024
The Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (VH) and Stichting UvO have agreed to extend the Easy Access Agreement (hbo) for one year, until 31 December 2024.
The collective buy-out scheme will therefore remain in force in 2024 for all universities of applied sciences (UAS, or 'HBO' in Dutch) that the VH represents. The conditions remain the same. Both paper readers/syllabi and digital reuse (on Blackboard, Canvas, etc.) has largely been bought off. Lecturers may copy up to 50 pages from publications (articles, books, etc.), provided that this is a maximum of 25% of the original work.
UvO will soon send invoices to all individual universities of applied sciences.