Members may be interested in the following Press release from CAL Australia:

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Record $21.4M available for copyright owners

  Thousands of authors, journalists, artists, publishers and other
copyright owners will be eligible to claim more than $21 million from
Copyright Agency Limited's distribution of copying licence fees this year,
CAL's Chief Executive, Michael Fraser, announced today.

  "CAL, a not-for-profit copyright management company, began distributing
payments to copyright owners in 1989. Since then we have made available
more than $130 million to our members for copying of their works," he said.

  "This year's record $21.4 million declaration represents a new benchmark
in CAL's history of successfully managing rights clearances on behalf of
hundreds of thousands of creators and producers.

  "At least twice a year, CAL declares the sum we can distribute to CAL
members, based on licence fees we collect from organisations which copy
text and images. Extensive surveys of our licensees' photocopying practices
identify who is eligible to receive payment from CAL," Mr Fraser said.

  "This week we will begin notifying more than 4,000 rights owners that
they may claim their share of $17.5 million from our mid-year distribution,
which was collected from school, university, TAFE (Technical and Further
Education) and church copying licences.

  "The data which forms the basis of the 2000 mid-year distribution was
drawn from almost 75,000 copying records, which identify nearly 7.3 million
copied pages.

  "CAL members who earn the most from our copyright management include
authors of school and university textbooks, journalists and publishers.

  "In this distribution, 41% of recipients are 'author' members of CAL (a
category which includes writers, journalists, artists and photographers)
and 58% are 'publisher' members. The other 1% [one per cent] of recipients
are other collecting societies or rights owners who cannot be identified at
this stage.

  "CAL is clearly doing the job it was established to do. We return more
than 80% of the licence fees we collect to our members, a figure that
compares very well with local and overseas copyright collecting societies,"
he said.

  "However, one of our challenges is identifying and making contact with
all eligible author, artist and publisher recipients.

  "Many of the rights owners identified in our surveys are not yet members
of CAL but we will keep trying to contact these recipients and invite them
to apply for membership.

  "Also, some of the records of photocopying we receive are incomplete,
while in other cases it can be very difficult to locate people who have
moved. CAL will continue to research these records in a bid to identify and
pay rightsowners.

  "All authors and publishers who control the rights in their works are
eligible to apply for membership of CAL and claim payment if their work
appears in CAL's copying records.

  "Non-members considering joining CAL to claim their share of a
distribution should bear in mind that membership is free and there is no
assignment of rights to CAL," Mr Fraser said.

  Media contact

  Charles Maddison Media Relations Officer
Phone: 02 - 9394 7684 (w)
Copyright Agency Limited 0417 - 652 613 (m)



from John Tranter

	Editor, Jacket magazine: http://www.jacket.zip.com.au/
	- new John Tranter homepage - poetry, reviews, articles, at:
		http://www.austlit.com/johntranter/
	- ancient history - the late sixties - at:
		http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/tranter/index.html
______________________________________________
	39 Short Street, Balmain NSW 2041, Sydney, Australia
	tel (+612) 9555 8502  fax (+612) 9818 8569



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