Botticelli_reprographic

Artists Rights Society represents illustrators for collective administration of your secondary reprographic rights.

ASIP and ARS have long endeavored together to repatriate reprographic royalties to illustrators earned by the overseas copying of your published work. After many years of collaboration ASIP and ARS formalized their relationship. At the request of ASIP, Artists Rights Society now welcomes individual illustrators to become a direct member of ARS.

Artists Rights Society is the preeminent copyright, licensing, and monitoring organization for visual artists in the United States. Founded in 1987, ARS represents the intellectual property rights interests of over 122,000 visual artists and their estates from around the world.

By joining the Artists Rights Society you will become a member of a CISAC society and be assimilated into an international system that protects artists rights in the US and internationally. CISAC is the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, the umbrella organization overseeing the activities of copyright collecting societies and collective rights management.

As part of this international network of rights organizations, ARS maintains relationships with like-minded “sister societies” abroad.  Repatriation of reprographic royalties is contingent in part by vetting that the artist is a member of a CISAC society, and thereby assimilated into the IPI (Interested Party Information) system, a globally unique identification of a natural person or legal entity with an interest in an artistic work. The IPI system eliminates potential confusion among the same or similar names in a global database and ensures that each artist is only represented by one society for collective rights management. It is used by more than 120 countries and three million rightsholders.

As a member of CISAC, the Artist Rights Society is the only visual arts collecting society in the US that is qualified and permitted to issue an IPI to a visual author. ASIP is grateful that ARS is extending this invitation to illustrators and urges all to join ARS.

As an Illustrator Member of ARS, you will be invited from time to time to fill out a claim sheet for specific countries in which your work has been published. Claims are different from country to country as foreign CMOs have differing methods and protocols for collecting and distributing secondary reprographic royalties. Payments, along with reports detailing uses for the period, are sent to members on a semi-annual basis.

Complete form and return to illustrators@arsny.com

(you will also need to complete a W-9 and fax to 212-420-9286)

FAQ

Reprographic rights are secondary rights that are managed collectively. Reprographic reproduction is the copying of published work. It began with photocopying and has now extended into digital reproductions of published works. If you have ever purchased photocopies or purchased a downloadable journal article you have paid a reprographic fee. Part of this fee is due the creator of the work.

Publishers license text and images from published works and partner with content aggregators to deliver subscriptions, search, and document delivery services to universities, libraries, hospitals and businesses; who in turn pay reprographic licensing fees to use content through these platforms. Over the usable life of a journal/magazine/news article, the secondary licensing of content may earn more in fees than the primary sales.

These rights are held individually but licensed through a collective administration. It is not possible for an artist to license these rights individually. American illustrators have been unsuccessful in accessing the reprographic royalties due them. Joining the Artists Rights Society and being assimilated into the IPI database will bring us closer to establishing a reprographic royalty income stream for illustrators.

Yes. You need to be assimilated into the IPI database, and ARS is the only US visual art Copyright Management Organization (CMO) that can provide this opportunity to you.

There is no fee to be a member of ARS. There is no fee to be assigned an IPI number and be assimilated into the IPI database.

ARS needs only the artist’s name, contact information and birth date (and death date in the case of estates): these dates are necessary to distinguish between two artists with the same name.

The IPI is a unique identifying number assigned by the CISAC database to each Interested Party in collective rights management.

“The purpose of the Interested Party Information (IPI) system is the global unique
identification of a right holder acting across multiple creation classes (musical work, literary work, work of art etc.) with an interest in an artistic work across all categories of works, different roles in relation to a work (composer, arranger, publisher, etc.) and the corresponding rights in a work. This system is an essential component of the data exchange mechanism linking the CISAC member societies.”

http://www.cisac.org/What-We-Do/Information-Services/IPI
https://www.ipisystem.org/ (click on “Public Information” to read more.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interested_Parties_Information

ARS has agreements with multiple foreign national CMOs specializing in collective licensing secondary reprographic use of artists’ copyrighted works within their territory.

Once you join ARS you will be invited to fill out a claim sheet for different specific countries, listing your published works.

Foreign CMOs have differing methods and protocols for collecting secondary reprographic royalties, including levies imposed on sales of equipment, recording media and software as well as blanket licensing of users of such equipment and media such as schools, institutions and companies.

Many illustrators produce ‘work for hire’ either as part of a full-time position or under contract in addition to producing work to which they own the copyright. The concept of work for hire is uniquely American and not recognized by the European CMOs. ARS will only be distributing royalties to the creator of the original works. Further distribution of the royalties in consideration of work for hire should be made at the discretion of the creator.

ARS retains 25% of the royalties collected on behalf of the artist under the member agreement as a fee for its services and will not require the artist to pay any additional fee.

When secondary rights royalties from a foreign CMO or CMOs have been successfully collected ARS will submit a report and payment to the artist on a semi-annual basis. The report will include the name(s) of the foreign CMO from whom the royalties were received and be accompanied by a payment for the entire amount shown to be due the artist for that period.

Yes, royalties are taxable income and must be reported by you to the IRS. ARS will send you a 1099 each year.

While artists are entitled to national treatment under international law, the cooperation of foreign CMOs is required for ARS to receive royalty payments from foreign CMOs. In cases where such cooperation may not be forthcoming ARS has no obligation to distribute payments to the artist.

National treatment means your copyrights are honored and treated in a foreign country in the same manner as an artist who is a citizen of that country.

All collective licensing agreements require indemnification to protect the cumulative royalties of member artists.

You must represent and warrant to ARS that your published works have been created by you and that you are the author, that your published works are original, that your published artistic works do not infringe another’s copyright, and that you have the authority to enter into and grant the rights set forth in the agreement necessary for ARS to perform its obligations under the agreement.

You do not need to be a US citizen to join ARS but you need to be a US domiciliary, meaning you are living in the US.

ARS only remits payments to US addresses so while you could live part time in another country, you will need to direct the payments to a US address.

Most countries also have national copyright management organizations that administer collective licensing of secondary rights. You may find your national CMO listed in the CISAC Member Directory.

You are welcome to join as soon as your work is published. Reprographic royalties are only earned when published work is copied.