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Sources Of Income
Photocopying
Photocopying of books and serials currently accounts for approximately 70% of income. The ALCS together with the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) has appointed the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) to act as its agent to license the photocopying right on its behalf and on behalf of its members on a non-exclusive basis. A small number of CLA licences now include the authority for limited scanning.
Public Lending Right
ALCS administers German, Austrian, Dutch and French Public Lending Right (PLR) for UK authors, and is in the process of entering into agreements with other European countries where PLR is being incorporated in to national legislation. UK PLR is administered by Public Lending Right based in Stockton-upon-Tees and funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Through agreements between ALCS and VG Wort, Literar-Mechana and Stichting Reprorecht, the respective German, Austrian and Dutch collecting societies for writers of literary works, members of ALCS are eligible to receive payment for German, Austrian and Dutch PLR provided that they are a British subject, or resident in the UK or Republic of Ireland, or the successor to the estate of a British writer.
ALCS also receives payments on behalf of its members for the loan of academic, scientific and technical titles from academic libraries in Germany.
Cable Retransmission
Cable retransmission is the simultaneous showing of one country’s television signals in another country via a cable network. Under UK law ALCS is deemed to be mandated to manage the cable retransmission rights of writers.
Cable companies pay a central collecting organisation a percentage of their subscription fees. This amount is then divided between rightsholders’ representative bodies. ALCS receives a lump sum for the writers’ share of these fees for British programmes containing literary and dramatic material, and then distributes it to the writers whose works have been shown. ALCS currently collects fees for the cable retransmission of most of the UK terrestrial channels as well as two Irish terrestrial channels in Northern Ireland.
ALCS also collects fees from several European countries for any UK writer whose work is transmitted via cable in neighbouring countries. For example, German, French and Italian signals are available by cable in Switzerland. From time to time these channels broadcast UK programmes and ALCS receives fees for this secondary use of writers’ works.
Educational Recording
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 gave educational establishments the right to record any radio or television broadcast, or cable programme, for educational purposes without infringing copyright. However, the Act also states that this right does not apply if a certified licensing scheme is in operation.
ALCS is responsible for paying writers their share of the fees collected by the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) which was established in 1989 by the main broadcasters and other rights-holders (including ALCS).
Private Copying
In a number of European countries a levy is charged on the sale of blank tapes and recording machines. These are usually referred to as blank tape or machine levies and are intended to compensate rights owners for the private copying of their works. The fees due to UK writers are collected by sister societies and sent to ALCS for distribution.
Other Rights
Small Literary Rights
ALCS collects and distributes monies from numerous miscellaneous sources such as readings of excerpts of literary works on television and radio in certain countries. The term small literary rights is used to designate such payments.
Poetry Festivals
ALCS distributes fees to poets for the use of their work in poetry festivals. The source of this payment is an agreement between ALCS and the British Federation of Music and Drama Festivals (BFMDF). The agreement allows participants in festivals affiliated to the BFMDF to recite poems in return for a small copyright fee.