Artists invited to share in more than $500,000 in copyright royalties
The copyright collecting society and rights management organisation, Copyright Agency | Viscopy is mounting a month-long campaign to collect fresh data from artists and their heirs about where their works have been published or used on TV. Copyright Agency | Viscopy manages licence fees that allow educational institutions, government, businesses and others to copy and share images and text, and pays the licensing fees back as royalties to writers, artists and publishers. At stake is more than $500,000 collected in copyright royalties which the organisation wants to distribute to visual artists in the first half of the year.
CEO of the Copyright Agency | Viscopy, Adam Suckling, says the campaign, Artists Royalty Payback, aims to build a more comprehensive picture about how copyrighted artwork is being used in Australia and provide payments to artists.
"This is a common practice among collecting societies internationally to ensure that the data we rely on to pay rights holders is reflective of what"s happening widely in the community.
"We"re asking artists, photographers, illustrators, cartoonists and fine artists to provide us with information about where their work has been published - for instance, whether online or in magazines, newspaper or books - or on television. Artists who are eligible, will receive a minimum royalty payment of $25.
"We"re asking artists who meet some simple criteria to tell us where there works have appeared and to join the Copyright Agency | Viscopy to receive a payment and potential future payments."
The criteria are:
"This is a common practice among collecting societies internationally to ensure that the data we rely on to pay rights holders is reflective of what"s happening widely in the community.
"We"re asking artists, photographers, illustrators, cartoonists and fine artists to provide us with information about where their work has been published - for instance, whether online or in magazines, newspaper or books - or on television. Artists who are eligible, will receive a minimum royalty payment of $25.
"We"re asking artists who meet some simple criteria to tell us where there works have appeared and to join the Copyright Agency | Viscopy to receive a payment and potential future payments."
The criteria are:
- The "artist" has created visual artworks (such as photographs, cartoons, illustrations or paintings); OR
- The person is a beneficiary of an artist; AND
- The artworks have been included in an Australian publication (book, ebook, journal, online journal, magazine, newspaper) and/or shown on TV in Australia; AND
- Permission is needed by people who copy the artworks.