20 June 2014

Members who claim Payback from DACS (The Design and Artists Copyright Society) will have recently received an email from them.

Please don't be alarmed by it, DACS need to ensure they legally represent your secondary rights (the rights you can't control yourself, such as photocopying), due to new legislation. The following note was posted by David Hoffman, on the EPUK site, following a number of photographers voicing their concerns:

"DACS distributes over £4 million in royalties through their Payback scheme each year. The money covers things such as the photocopying of visual work in books and magazines (known as secondary rights) which we’d not be able to bill for individually. If you are a Payback claimant then you will have had an email from DACS asking you to become a DACS member and to give DACS an exclusive licence to negotiate, claim and administer your secondary rights.

Forthcoming changes in the law have put these rights – and the payments we receive – under threat. There are other organisations that may try to claim that they already own these rights and can licence them without making the payments to us that we currently receive through Payback. In order to protect our income DACS needs to be able to demonstrate that they and no other organisation has the right to administer these secondary rights in our work."

It is important that you sign up to become a DACS member and the AOP encourages you to sign and return the form. For further information on DACS, go to link