The division between rightsholders of licensing revenues collected by the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and NLA media access (NLA) has been independently determined for the first time ever in a valuation process.
Organisations representing UK publishers, authors and visual artists appointed Mark Bezant of FTI Consulting to determine how revenues for copying text and images in books, journals and magazines should be transparently and fairly distributed to rightsholders.
Alongside ACS the valuation was commissioned by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies (BAPLA), the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) and the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) in order to achieve an objective split of revenues amongst their respective stakeholders that was fit for purpose. A key objective of the valuation has been to ensure that the outcome satisfies the requirements for transparency and fairness in the Collective Rights Management Directive due to be implemented into UK law in April 2016.
All five participating organisations having committed to the outcome, Mark Bezant proceeded to gather, analyse and assess detailed evidence relating to usage of and rights ownership in material copied by Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and NLA media acces (NLA) licencees in the education, business and public sectors. He conducted the year long process openly and transparently, and is commended for his impartial and balanced approach.
Collective licensing delivers an important secondary revenue stream, worth £68.2m in 2014/15, to authors, publishers and visual artists. The UK is a global leader in the creative industries, worth £8.8 million per hour to the British economy. The different sectors have come together in this process to support rightsholders and ensure that the UK continues to be a secure and successful environment for creatives.
Whilst the valuation does not affect the licences offered by CLA and NLA, it does mean that licensees can be confident that the fees they pay for the right to copy from books, journals and magazines are distributed to the appropriate rightsholders.
You can read the full valuation here.
If you have any questions about the valuation or payback, do get in touch.