[LINK] Copyright staff get more than they give to authors and artists

[Kim Holburn]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/copyright-staff-get-more-than-they-give-to-authors-and-artists/story-e6frg8n6-1225831556653
http://tinyurl.com/y9wjje7

> Copyright staff get more than they give to authors and artists
>
> THE body established to pay authors for the use of their copyright  
> last year spent more on its own staff -- including more than  
> $350,000 for a chief executive -- than it paid authors and artists  
> directly.


....

> CAL supplements its direct payments to authors with a large  
> allocation -- $76m last year -- to Australian and international  
> publishers on the assumption that a proportion of this money will be  
> returned to authors.
>
> "While it is true that publishers may collect on behalf of their  
> authors, at present once they receive funds from CAL there is no  
> check that they do, in fact, carry out their legal obligation to  
> pass on money," said Jeremy Fisher, former executive director of the  
> Australian Society of Authors and Senior Lecturer in Writing at the  
> University of New England. "Nor is it clear how much any one  
> publisher receives from CAL."
>
> Of about $114m raised by CAL through licensing fees last year, more  
> than $80m came from schools, TAFE colleges and universities and is,  
> in effect, public money.
>


Kim

-- 
Kim Holburn
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