Copyright Agency collects licence fees for uses of content that would otherwise require a copyright clearance from a rightsholder.
If you are a rightsholder or creator, you can claim a payment for a use if the use is covered by a Copyright Agency commercial licence or the copying schemes (statutory licences) we manage for government and educational purposes.
To be entitled to receive a payment, you must:
- have been a rightsholder since the work was created (be the first owner of copyright);
- have become a rightsholder by acquiring rights;
- have been appointed by the rightsholder as their agent to collect Copyright Agency payments on their behalf; or
- have been allocated a payment by a foreign collecting society under its distribution policy.
WAYS OF ACQUIRING RIGHTS
You can acquire rights:
- by a rightsholder assigning them to you in writing
- by a rightsholder giving you an exclusive licence in writing
- by inheritance (under a will or intestacy laws)
You are not automatically entitled to receive a payment merely because:
- you published the work; and/or
- the work was made for you
In most cases, your entitlement to claim will depend on whether you have acquired, in writing, the rights covered by Copyright Agency’s licences.
assigning RIGHTS
Copyright owners may assign or license rights to others. Assignment of copyright and licences can include a number of limitations and conditions. These can include limitations on the type of use that can be made of the work, the period of time for which a licence applies and requirements for payment.
how we distribute payments
All amounts received by the Copyright Agency after deduction of Copyright Agency’s costs and the 1.5% allocation to the Cultural Fund are available for distribution to members. The Copyright Agency distributes the licence fees received under each scheme separately. It is done this way because the works used in each scheme can be different, so we keep them separate to be as fair and equitable as possible.
See more about how we calculate licence fees and distribute royalties and/or view our Distribution Policy.
If you’re a member and would like to see when the next round of payments will be made, see our Distribution Schedule.
Tax on your payments
Download our information sheet Tax on Copyright Agency payments.
our administration fees
As a not-for-profit organisation, the Copyright Agency funds its operations by deducting its costs from the licence fees received each year. Our deductions for administrative costs vary from licence scheme to licence scheme, and from distribution to distribution. For a small number of schemes, the deductions are fixed. For example, our administrative fee for the resale royalty scheme is 15% of royalties collected.
See more about our Administration Fees.
claim payments
We allocate copyright licence fees to rightsholders in accordance with our Distribution Policy. In most cases, we allocate licence fees using information about usage from surveys of licensees.
To ensure you receive your notifications and advice of any payments, you need to activate your online member account.
You can change the details of your nominated bank account via your online account, or contact our Member Services team between 9:00am–5:00pm Monday to Friday on
1800 066 844 (toll free within Australia) or by email.
Sharing payments with others
In some cases, there may be more than one person who is entitled to a Copyright Agency allocation. When members receive a payment, they also receive documentation from us that tells them if the payment may need to be shared.
In some cases, a payment does not need to be shared. This includes payments made by us in accordance with book contract ‘splits’.
If we don’t have book contract splits, and more than one party to a contract is a member, our distribution policy determines which member we pay (who must share the payment with the others). Under our ‘author first’ policy, an author can elect to receive payments to share with a publisher and any co-authors. Alternatively, an author may prefer that payments be made to the publisher to manage the sharing arrangements.
If you would like to check or change your payment preference for allocations to your works, contact our Member Services Manager, Rosie Daniele.
Payments in accordaNCE WITH BOOK CONTRACT ‘SPLITS’
Book publishing contracts commonly provide that Copyright Agency allocations are to be shared in agreed proportions between or among the parties to the contract.
In some cases, we can ‘split’ an allocation for a book and pay each party their share, rather than paying one member to share with other parties to the contract.
We only accept information about contractual ‘splits’ where:
- the ISBN for a book is in the dataset for a forthcoming distribution;
- there are two or three parties to the contract;
- all parties to the contract are members of Copyright Agency; and
- all parties have been informed that Copyright Agency has been asked to split the allocation and pay each party in accordance with the contract splits.
Where possible, we will notify members about their ISBNs in datasets for forthcoming distributions, so they have an opportunity to give us the contractual splits, where the criteria above apply.
excluded payments
In some cases, a copyright owner may not want to receive payments from the educational statutory licence but have not indicated their intentions in their terms and conditions. Copyright owners can instruct Copyright Agency to exclude their works from allocation of payments from this licence.
If you do not want to be allocated payments from statutory licence compensation, please contact Member Services between 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday to Friday on the Member Helpline
1800 066 844 (toll free within Australia) or by email.
Conversely, if a copyright owner or rightsholder wants to include their works under the licences we administer, contact Member Services between 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday to Friday on the Member Helpline 1800 066 844 (toll free within Australia) or by email.
complaints and disputes
Complaints and disputes arise from time to time between members regarding who controls the rights in works and, consequently, to whom Copyright Agency should distribute money for any copying.
We are committed to fair and transparent dealings with our licensees and members so we’ve developed a complaints procedure. Our procedure complies with the requirements of Australian Standard 10002:2006, guidelines for complaints handling in organisations (the Standard). The procedure is administered in accordance with the Standard, and the Code of Conduct for Copyright Collecting Societies.
You can lodge a complaint if:
- you are a member of Copyright Agency or
- a licensee of Copyright Agency e.g. a school, university, corporation, TAFE, government department, document delivery service or local council.
Complaints that cannot be resolved through our Complaints Handling procedure may be resolved through our Dispute Resolution procedure.
The Copyright Agency’s Disputed Allocations Resolution Procedure (DARP) has been developed to assist Copyright Agency members when a dispute arises between members regarding a Copyright Agency allocation or payment. The Disputed Allocations Resolution Procedure aims to assist members to resolve disputes quickly. A dedicated Copyright Agency Disputes Officer oversees all disputes between members and is available to guide members through the process. View the DARP here.
WHAT IF IT’S NOT CLEAR?
Copyright Agency relies on warranties from claimants that they are entitled to claim. We can’t give advice about this. In some cases, rights arrangements such as publishing contracts can be ambiguous or unclear about entitlement to Copyright Agency payments. Members may need to seek their own advice.
This information is for guidance only. It is not legal advice.
6 November 2017
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