If something sounds too good to be true it usually is, right? And it turns out that many professional illustrators and photographers were skeptical about how the American Society for Collective Rights Licensing (ASCRL) operates. So Workbook wanted to know more about the organization and spoke with James Lorin Silverberg, ICEO, ASCRL, in order to understand just how the organization works for the benefit of profession visual artists and here is what he told us:
“ASCRL, The American Society for Collective Rights Licensing, Inc., is a not-for-profit 501(c)(6) tax-exempt organization. ASCRL collects funds from foreign legal systems and distributes them to US illustrators and photographers and to foreign illustrators and photographers who have works published in US publications. The funds are for what foreign countries call “secondary rights.” These are different from US copyrights.
So to be clear about one thing from the start, ASCRL does not do any direct licensing of any individual works. And, ASCRL does not collect money for copyright infringements. ASCRL does not have ownership of the illustrators’ or photographers’ copyrights.
The funds ASCRL gets are collected under foreign legal systems unlike those in the United States. For example, some of the funds come from levies on copiers. In the US, authors do not get paid for photocopier sales! Some come from the lending of books in foreign countries. In the US, authors do not get paid when a library lends a book! Some comes from taxes on computer sales. US authors don’t get paid for that either! Sometimes a country makes it legal to use a work in a foreign country without an author’s permission. For example, in Sweden photographic work can be used for public television as long as the Public TV enterprise pays the Swedish collecting society. It is ok under their law. It is not illegal, and it is not an infringement. ASCRL collects that money to pays it to the authors.
ASCRL has collected over $1,200,000 USD. It has done its first illustrator distributions, and over the next year will distribute most of this fund. Illustrators received two distributions in 2019, with most illustrators getting at least $400. Another illustrator distribution is scheduled before the end of the year. ASCRL also has existing agreements under which it will collect more foreign funds in the future.
In order to qualify for a distribution, the illustrator or photographer must register three published works. Each work can be published either in a book, magazine, or commercial website. The author must give the name of the illustration or photograph. The author must also give the isbn, issn, or url where the work was published. Authors do NOT upload or provide copies of their works. The author is also asked how many illustrations or photographs they have published (this can be a conservative estimate). The author is also asked how many times all of their work has been published (this is also a conservative estimate). The illustrator or photographer must provide registration information on the ASCRL website. Funds are transferred to his or her bank by ACH transfer. So, bank information is needed. The author must also upload a W-9 on the ASCRL website.
ASCRL has the endorsement of a number of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers and illustrators! And here is what artists’ representative David Goldman has to say about ASCRL:
“At first I was skeptical, but illustrators need to understand that their entitlement to foreign collective funds has no impact on their licensing. And the collective funds they might receive through ASCRL have nothing to do with any actual use of their work. These funds are legally collected in foreign countries under foreign legal systems, from taxes, levies, and compulsory uses, which we do not have in the United States, and they are funds over which authors have no individual control. Some are earmarked for US illustrators and photographers. They have nothing to do with copyright infringement. So, I am happy to say that ACRL is now representing us around the world to get us these funds and to distribute them to illustrators and photographers here in the United States.”
Learn more about the the work ASCRL is doing on behalf of visual artists by logging on to their website.
