Home / About ALCS

About ALCS

The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) represents the interests of all UK writers and aims to ensure writers are fairly compensated for any works that are copied, broadcast or recorded.  Writers’ primary rights are protected by contract, but it is the life of the work over the following decades that needs to be monitored and fairly rewarded.  It is with secondary rights that copyright has an important role to play in protecting writers and creators from unpaid use and moral abuse of their work.  Secondary use ranges from photocopying and repeat broadcast transmission in the UK and overseas to reproduction in journals and repeat use via the internet and digital reproduction.

ALCS is dedicated to protecting and promoting authors’ rights:

• by encouraging the establishment of collective licensing schemes, where appropriate
• by fostering an awareness of copyright issues to enable writers to maximise their income, and
• by ensuring that fees resulting from such schemes are efficiently collected and distributed.

Run by writers for writers, ALCS has distributed over £140 million to writers since its inception in 1977. It is the largest writers’ organisation in the UK, with over 54,000 members, and in the last financial year ALCS paid out a total of £13.6 million to over 42,000 writers.

ALCS represents writers of all genres, from text-book authors and freelance journalists to poets and radio dramatists. ALCS membership is open to all types of writers and their successors across the print and audiovisual sectors.

ALCS is recognised internationally as a leading authority on copyright matters and authors’ interests.  We are committed to fostering an awareness of intellectual property issues among the writing community. We maintain a close watching brief on all matters affecting copyright both in the UK and internationally and we make regular representations to the UK government and the European Commission on behalf of writers.

ALCS works closely with the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, the Society of Authors and, by reciprocal agreement, over 50 collecting societies across the world.

To find out more about becoming a writer click here.

To view current job vacancies at ALCS click here