Copyright Agency Scam or Real?

[21LadyLuck]

Has anyone had any experience with Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) ?

They emailed and also sent info by post saying they are holding funds for us (over $1500) for material that may have been used from our website.

The material they actually mailed to us looks very legit but ...

We have to join CAL to get the funds and membership is free. But this is setting off lots of red flags since they want our company banking details.

Their website is copyright com au if you want to have a look.

So, does anyone have a CAL membership and actually received money ... or is this a very elaborate scam?

Pam

[DCrux]

You tell me.

Copyright staff get more than they give to authors and artists

So, if you're producing Russell Crowe movies, it may be worth a go. LOLcats pics ...not so much. Wikipedia scrapes for a buck and a quarter ...yeah you might want to rethink that.

[Shyflower]

It seems odd to me that they have already collected $1500 in copyright fees when you haven't given them the okay to do so. Who set the price for reprint privileges to your work? I also wonder why they need your bank details.

[lbaulch]

The Australian Copyright Act contains provisions that allow educational institutions and governments to use copyright material, without permission, provided they make fair payment. Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) is a non-profit organisation that collects and distributes copyright fees.

CAL was appointed in 1989 by the government to collect and distribute copyright fees for text and images used by educational institutions in 1990, and by the Copyright Tribunal to collect and distribute copyright fees for goverment use of text and images in 1998. There is information about CAL on the Attorney-General's Department here.

CAL has more than 16,000 members, who include writers, journalists, artists, photographers and publishers. It distributes more than $100 million a year in copyright fees to rights owners whose material has been used by governments, educational institutions, corporations and others.

Under CAL's current distribution model, where there is more than one rights holder, CAL pays one rights holder who undertakes to on-pay other rights holders. Most authors receive CAL payments indirectly through their publishers rather than directly from CAL. Authors can, however, receive payments directly from CAL by becoming a CAL member, and undertaking to on-pay any amounts due to other rights holders.

Copyright Agency Limited (CAL)

[21LadyLuck]

It seems odd to me that they have already collected $1500 in copyright fees when you haven't given them the okay to do so. Who set the price for reprint privileges to your work? I also wonder why they need your bank details.

From what I've read on their website, they collect money for all copyright works and pay their members if it applies to them. If you're not a member, it's held for 4 years and then distributed to their general pool for all members.

I couldn't find anywhere the price being paid for copyrights.

Not only do we not know what was paid for use of our material, we don't even know what content has been used. We have almost 2,000 pages on our website, so it could be anything.

The bank account info is for direct deposit. Getting $1,500+ would be really nice, but I think we need to do some more checking. The paperwork you have to sign is a bit concerning.

Thanks DCrux for the link. Sounds like another program no one is monitoring to make sure we're not being ripped off.

I'd feel a lot better if others at Sitepoint had experience getting paid by CAL and could relate their experiences.

Pam