First Ever Independent Rights Valuation Published

LONDON, January 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

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.

The valuation was commissioned by ALCS, ACS, BAPLA, DACS and 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 and perceived value and rights ownership in material copied by CLA and 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.  

To view the final determination, effective from 1 January 2016, please visit the websites of ACS, ALCS, BAPLA, DACS, or PLS. The determination includes a timetable for future reviews and a summary in Section 2.

Rightsholders should direct any questions about the valuation to their respective representative organisation.

Editor's Notes  

The participating organisations:

Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) 

ALCS was founded in 1977 as a result of a long running campaign in the United Kingdom by the Writers' Action Group (WAG) for writers to receive remuneration for the lending of their works by libraries.  Its purpose at that time was to deal with:

• Payments from VG Wort for German Public Lending Right (PLR)
• British PLR
• Belgian cable TV
• Reprography, i.e. photocopying royalties

ALCS today has a membership of over 85,000 writers, paid out £30m (net) to writers in 2014/15 and is still owned and run by its writer Members.

For more information about ALCS please see http://www.alcs.co.uk/

Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) 

PLS was set up in 1981. Its four shareholder members are the four lead trade associations for the publishing industry, namely the Association of Learned & Professional Publishers (ALPSP), the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG), the Professional Publishers Association (PPA) and the Publishers Association (PA).

PLS provides rights management services to the publishing industry. Its primary remit is to oversee collective licensing in the UK for book, journal, magazine and website copying. To this end PLS collects mandates for collective licensing from publishers and distributes the monies generated for publishers from collective licensing to the publishers whose publications are shown in surveys to have been copied.

It also oversees the licence development process by its licensing agents, currently CLA and (for magazines only) NLA media access. PLS also provides a range of rights management services and initiatives for publishers, including:

• PLSe - its free online rights management service for publishers signed up to PLS
• PLSclear - a permissions clearance tool
• Access to Research - a UK initiative providing access for public library users to academic research.

For more information please see http://www.pls.org.uk/


Visual artists (VAs) 

Visual artists encompass photographers, illustrators, fine artists and anyone else whose images are embedded in the publications licensed by CLA and NLA.  VAs are also represented by:

• Artists' Collecting Society (ACS);
• British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies (BAPLA) and;
• The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS)

Artists' Collecting Society (ACS) 

The Artists' Collecting Society (ACS) is the only Community Interest Company dedicated to the collection of copyright on behalf of artists and artists' estates in both the UK and the EU.  ACS was set up in response to requests from artists, dealers, auction houses and galleries who recognised the need for a transparent, fair and professional collecting society that puts artists' needs first. ACS represents over 1,000 artists and artists' estates including painters, sculptors, photographers and designers.

For more information please see http://www.artistscollectingsociety.org

British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies (BAPLA) 

BAPLA is the trade association for picture libraries in the UK and has been a trade body since 1975.  BAPLA has approximately 200 members including major news, stock and production agencies as well as sole traders and cultural heritage institutions. A substantial proportion of the images seen every day in print and digital media is supplied by BAPLA members.

For more information see http://www.bapla.org.uk 

The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) 

Established by artists for artists in 1984, DACS is a not-for-profit visual artists' rights management organisation, collecting and distributing royalties to artists and their estates through: Payback, Artist's Resale Right, Copyright Licensing and Artimage. Passionate about transforming the financial landscape for visual artists through fair and innovative new products and services, DACS acts as a transparent, trusted broker for 90,000 artists worldwide. DACS is a professional flagship organisation that has and continues to campaign for artists' rights, championing their sustained and vital contribution to the creative economy. To date, DACS has paid over £75 million in royalties to artists and their estates - a significant source of income supporting artists' livelihoods, their practice and legacy.

Visit dacs.org.uk for more information about DACS.

Mark Bezant, FTI Consulting 

Mark Bezant is Senior Managing Director in the Economic & Financial Consulting Division of FTI. He joined FTI in March 2009. Mark was also formerly a partner in the valuation team of Deloitte's corporate finance practice and previous to that the partner-in-charge of the UK Economic & Financial Consulting practice of Arthur Andersen.

Mark advises on all aspects of valuing businesses, companies, listed and unlisted securities, intellectual property and intangible assets. He has published and presented extensively on valuation and intellectual property matters. He is the founding and current chairman of the Valuation Special Interest Group of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, a body of some 900 valuation practitioners.

Mark has extensive experience of acting as an independent expert appointed to determine valuation and accounting disputes between parties, and as an adviser to a party involved in such processes.

Collective Rights Management Directive: DIRECTIVE 2014/26/EU