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Licensing & Income

ALCS is dedicated to protecting and promoting authors’ rights by encouraging the establishment of collective licensing schemes.

ALCS currently holds reciprocal or bilateral agreements with over 50 sister organisations in 38 countries. Where appropriate it also collects from, and distributes to, societies in these countries on behalf of their writer members.

The main sources of income for ALCS are described below:

The Copyright Licensing Agency was formed in 1982 by ALCS and the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) as a non-profit making company to encourage and promote respect for copyright. To date it has collected and distributed over £258 million in fees to rights owners.

ALCS, together with the main broadcasters and other rightsholders, set up the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) in 1989 to offer licences to educational establishments. ERA collects fees from its licensees, which are then apportioned between the broadcasters and other rightsholders, including audio visual writers, according to negotiated percentages.