Judging by the cost of the present CLA licence, any such scheme would probably be extremely expensive. Copyright clearing systems are also a solution, but there is no comprehensive system available to clear rights on an individual basis. Such schemes are also likely to be expensive. Alternatively, we could contract with publishers, but this denies us any statutory right to copy electronically, and we do not want the expense of a contract with every publisher or author. We may not be able to trust rightholders to give us enough access for all our future needs with minimum payment.
Individual agreements are already in place with publishers.
The Pilot Site Licensing Initiative for education allows UK universities to have free access to all the electronic versions of publications if they subscribe to the print versions. At present this is subsidised, and may not continue if the subsidy is withdrawn. Librarians fear that without a statutory right to extract ideas and information, access will be packaged and chargeable with even simple facts tied up. This extends copyright too far, as it was not intended to protect ideas, only their expression. If all ideas are protected by controls and accessible only to those who can pay for them, this is what will happen.