Bonzo - I don't think the B.L. would let members of the public get their hands on the tapes, they'd lend the 'product' - the LP. They do let tapes out under certain circumstances though, for re-mastering/releasing or whatever, but I don't know exactly what circumstances or what licences, permissions etc., are required.

In the case of my own album it was a Spanish record company who borrowed the tapes, but for all I know the copying could have been done in the UK, and I suspect that to be the case. Neither I nor the band were even consulted despite, unlike Nic, being fully credited with authorship. Robbery by contract was not an unusual phenomenon back then, and artists were easily swayed by the prospect of twelve inches of vinyl.