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ARTICLE · 28 MAY 2013

Collecting Societies In The UK – Cracking The Code

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In October 2012, the UK government introduced certain minimum standards for collecting societies.

United KingdomMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Celia Lloyd Davidson
Celia Lloyd Davidson
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In October 2012, the UK government introduced certain minimum standards for collecting societies. This, in turn, led a number of societies to introduce voluntary codes of conduct. However, in December 2012, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) published a report which casts doubt on whether this voluntary approach will actually benefit members and users.

Background

Collecting societies are specialist bodies, who license particular rights in copyright works on behalf of member owners. They collect the revenues received from licensing copyright-protected works to users, and distribute them back to copyright-owning members (minus deductions).

Various collecting societies exist in the UK, and are broadly grouped by sector. For example, the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) works with writers, whilst artists can use the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) and the Artists' Collecting Society (ACS). Collecting societies have two aims:

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