Listen or read (8 min) | #73—Is it really too hard to negotiate content agreements with the internet? Join writer Alia Parker to learn why Big Tech is lobbying Canberra and what Australia's creative industries want you to do about it.
Now, here’s an interesting thing. In my day job I write language courses, which are published by one of the biggest educational publishers in Germany. As part of my work I incorporate third-party texts, which could be journalistic or literary, as ‘inputs’ for the secondary school students to work on. This is an extremely common practice and is handled by VG Wort, a large German copyright collective. The idea is, the publisher pays VG Wort for the use of the content, and VG Wort pays the content creators.
BUT THEY DON’T PAY ALL CREATORS.
They only pay distributions to creators, or their publishers, registered with VG Wort. And registration outside the EU is via a local collecting society, which you have to be registered with, as an individual creator, to receive anything.
Basically, if you don’t know your work is being used, or have extraordinarily proactive publishers who are registered with VG Wort, you won’t get paid. Even though the publisher is paying VG Wort to use your work.
And thus for every country in which your work might be published. There is no international oversight over the collection of secondary royalties - at all.
Moreover the collecting societies charge a fee to collect your royalties and distribute them to you, and not a small one. From memory it’s in the order of 20% for our own Copyright Agency.
A couple of years ago I wanted to use a friend’s poem in one of my books. It was published by a micro publisher in South Africa. I had to exert a lot of pressure on my publisher to negotiate a fee with her directly. Otherwise VG Wort would have got the standard paltry fee and my friend would have got nothing.
Even without AI, a lot of authors are missing out on a lot of money which they are entitled to. Collection is a joke.
VG Wort is just a collecting society. Educational textbooks in the EU are permitted to reproduce up to 10% of a longer work, possibly more of a shorter one, eg a whole poem, without applying to the copyright holder. It’s up to the copyright holder to magically know this has happened and apply to VG Wort for their fair share of the monies!
If they are resident outside the EU, not EU citizens, and do not have a publisher registered with VG Wort, they are probably ineligible to register as individual authors.
As far as I can work it out, in this case VG Wort keeps the publisher’s payment. It might also be that the publisher pays a licensing fee for all relevant content, rather than work by work, I’m not sure.
In the case of my secondary royalties from the UK, I only found out by chance, because one of my coauthors and one of my UK publishers were inclined to be helpful, that ALCS, the UK collecting society, had a ‘substantial amount’ for me, and I should register with them via CAL in Australia.
The ‘substantial amount’ has been well over $30k so far, but I was unaware of it for 10 years.
These aren’t licensing fees, rather fees for institutional use, so slightly different, but collected in the same way.
In practice, self-publishers and authors with micro-presses are almost completely excluded from these revenue streams, as is anyone who has relinquished their copyright in exchange for a fee, which I guess would be most journalists.
Wow, that's no small amount. There's something very wrong with a system in which someone has the rights to be paid but isn't notified by the people using their work. I've read (I think in the Productivity Commission's report) that the EU has existing 'text and data mining' exemptions, although these predate AI. Singapore has introduced them more recently in response to AI. Big Tech uses that as another argument as to why Australia should introduce exemptions, because they can legally access the work of Aussie creatives who trade in those markets, anyway.
The ancient Greeks were a wise people but they were wrong about Pandora’s Box. Under the jewel there was a secret compartment filled with all kinds of unimaginable horrors. God help us all. ❤️!
Oops, I meant to type “good” on you, not “goon". Sheesh, that would be me typing on my itty bitty phone instead of a proper keyboard! Hope this finds you well!
I’ve signed Alia. Thank you. Neither corporation nor machine should own our minds.
Thank you, Jeff :)
Good piece Alia, thanks for your explanation. I’ve signed!
Thank you, Kim :)
Thanks, Alia. Signed.
Now, here’s an interesting thing. In my day job I write language courses, which are published by one of the biggest educational publishers in Germany. As part of my work I incorporate third-party texts, which could be journalistic or literary, as ‘inputs’ for the secondary school students to work on. This is an extremely common practice and is handled by VG Wort, a large German copyright collective. The idea is, the publisher pays VG Wort for the use of the content, and VG Wort pays the content creators.
BUT THEY DON’T PAY ALL CREATORS.
They only pay distributions to creators, or their publishers, registered with VG Wort. And registration outside the EU is via a local collecting society, which you have to be registered with, as an individual creator, to receive anything.
Basically, if you don’t know your work is being used, or have extraordinarily proactive publishers who are registered with VG Wort, you won’t get paid. Even though the publisher is paying VG Wort to use your work.
And thus for every country in which your work might be published. There is no international oversight over the collection of secondary royalties - at all.
Moreover the collecting societies charge a fee to collect your royalties and distribute them to you, and not a small one. From memory it’s in the order of 20% for our own Copyright Agency.
A couple of years ago I wanted to use a friend’s poem in one of my books. It was published by a micro publisher in South Africa. I had to exert a lot of pressure on my publisher to negotiate a fee with her directly. Otherwise VG Wort would have got the standard paltry fee and my friend would have got nothing.
Even without AI, a lot of authors are missing out on a lot of money which they are entitled to. Collection is a joke.
That's terrible. Who in this process is responsible for contacting the creator to ask for permission? I imagine VG Wort if they're collecting money?
VG Wort is just a collecting society. Educational textbooks in the EU are permitted to reproduce up to 10% of a longer work, possibly more of a shorter one, eg a whole poem, without applying to the copyright holder. It’s up to the copyright holder to magically know this has happened and apply to VG Wort for their fair share of the monies!
If they are resident outside the EU, not EU citizens, and do not have a publisher registered with VG Wort, they are probably ineligible to register as individual authors.
As far as I can work it out, in this case VG Wort keeps the publisher’s payment. It might also be that the publisher pays a licensing fee for all relevant content, rather than work by work, I’m not sure.
In the case of my secondary royalties from the UK, I only found out by chance, because one of my coauthors and one of my UK publishers were inclined to be helpful, that ALCS, the UK collecting society, had a ‘substantial amount’ for me, and I should register with them via CAL in Australia.
The ‘substantial amount’ has been well over $30k so far, but I was unaware of it for 10 years.
These aren’t licensing fees, rather fees for institutional use, so slightly different, but collected in the same way.
In practice, self-publishers and authors with micro-presses are almost completely excluded from these revenue streams, as is anyone who has relinquished their copyright in exchange for a fee, which I guess would be most journalists.
It’s an extremely murky world!
Wow, that's no small amount. There's something very wrong with a system in which someone has the rights to be paid but isn't notified by the people using their work. I've read (I think in the Productivity Commission's report) that the EU has existing 'text and data mining' exemptions, although these predate AI. Singapore has introduced them more recently in response to AI. Big Tech uses that as another argument as to why Australia should introduce exemptions, because they can legally access the work of Aussie creatives who trade in those markets, anyway.
The ancient Greeks were a wise people but they were wrong about Pandora’s Box. Under the jewel there was a secret compartment filled with all kinds of unimaginable horrors. God help us all. ❤️!
Yes, all sorts of things keep escaping! But under it all, there's still hope :) And I hope you're well, Rafael.
And I hope you and yours are well too. ❤️!
Thank you Alia, I appreciate your wrangling with all of this too!
Your welcome, Gillian. I love signing a good open letter or petition 😆
Excellent piece! Thank you for your knowledge in detailing the essence of the matter. Good on you, our Aus friends! 🥾
Thank you, Kate :)
Oops, I meant to type “good” on you, not “goon". Sheesh, that would be me typing on my itty bitty phone instead of a proper keyboard! Hope this finds you well!
I didn't even notice. I'm the worst when I type on my phone. The predictive text changes my words to the most inappropriate things 😆
Haha glad I’m not alone! I was able to edit my goof. Stay inappropriate on purpose!