Australian Copyright Law - Collecting Societies

Collecting Societies

A number of copyright collecting societies operate in Australia. Collecting societies are established to collect royalties for uses of copyright material on behalf of authors and copyright owners: they assist to overcome the significant transaction costs that would face individual creators in monitoring, enforcing, and licensing their rights. A notable feature of some of the Australian collecting societies is that some are 'declared' to be the society with the function of being the sole collector of royalties under the statutory licenses. The collecting societies in Australia are:

• Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society Ltd (AMCOS): represents music publishers and writers from for rights in the reproduction of musical works;
• Australasian Performing Right Association: collects royalties for the owners of copyright in musical works for the performance of their musical works;
• Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI)
• Copyright Agency Limited (CAL): collects royalties for the reproduction of printed material, and in particular, administers the statutory licenses that allow educational institutions to copy and communicate printed material;
• Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Ltd (PPCA): collects royalties for performers for the broadcast, communication or public playing of recorded music;
• Screenrights: set up in 1990 to administer statutory licenses that let educational institutions copy from TV and radio for teaching;
• Visual Arts Copyright Collecting Agency (VISCOPY): licenses the copyright in artistic works.