Login / RegisterOpen letter ignores fact that Access Copyright doesn't play role in contracts between authors and publishers
Inhis open letter to Access Copyright, Brian Brett confuses the negotiated relationship between authors and publishers with the relationship between the copyright owner and Access Copyright.
Access Copyright is not privy in any way to the first relationship and plays no role in it whatsoever. Many of Mr. Brett's comments stem from the relationship between the author and the publisher. The only relationship that Access Copyright can influence is the one between the copyright owner and Access Copyright.
The Access Copyright Board of Directors continuously examines the reasonableness and fairness of the Access Copyright royalty distribution rules. In addition to this continuous review, and at the insistence of some of Access Copyright’s creator member organizations, we commissioned an independent, detailed, and rigorous review of Access Copyright’s royalty distribution in the spring of 2006. University of Toronto Law Professor Martin Friedland was selected by an ad hoc committee of the board, made up of creator and publisher directors, to independently review the distribution policy and methodology in practice at Access Copyright and make recommendations to improve their fairness and transparency.
Professor Friedland made 20 recommendations, 18 of which were implemented by the board. The only two recommendations that were not implemented were the recommendation that called for a reallocation of royalties between publishers and the recommendation to reduce the size of the Access Copyright board.
Since a motion to reduce the size of the board had already been voted down at the March 2006 Annual General Meeting, the board decided that it was not time to revisit the issue.
As stated by Penney Kome, Access Copyright’s past creator co-chair, the “board has listened to creators’ concerns and made major policy changes in order to address them.” In a recent survey of creator affiliates, 83 percent stated that they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with Payback, the new royalty distribution model for creators. Our aim is to further increase this high level of satisfaction.
James Romanow
Creator Co-chair
Access Copyright Board of Directors
Nancy Gerrish
Publisher Co-chair
Access Copyright Board of Directors
"The Payback formula is calculated in two steps.
Step One - 40% of the Payback pool is distributed equally amongst all creators.
Step Two - 60% of the Payback pool is distributed to writers and visual artists depending on what they published and how much they published. The more you publish, the greater your Payback payment."
http://www.accesscopyright.ca/creators/non-title-specific-distributions/
This seems to be saying that the writer's take is not based on how many readers she has, only how many books she's written, regardless of sales or circulation levels.
AC raised 33 million dollars last year, of which only $400,000 went directly to creators. Another $4 million was split up by a byzantine calculation fair to no one. $6 million was sent to copyright organizations overseas, few of which returned any of their copyright collection to us. That leaves $23 million dollars for the publishers and the bureaucracy. This is patently not fair. It's designed to benefit the high-paid bureaucracy and the publishers at the expense of creators.
That said, as much as I am disputing the disposal of monies by AC, I want to note that I support at present their right to collect royalty payments on our behalf. writers are equally hard-pressed by educational institutions and many other people who believe creators and publishers should work for free. Students will pay for their ipads but not the people who made their extraordinary content. My grandaughter's yearly tuition fee is equal to the amount the average writers earns. Now who's got the money, and why are students cheating writers? --, the people, who in reality, are beside them at the barricades in their support for a strong educational system. No, James, it's tough for the young writers these days. They're being abused on every front, not just by Access Copyright.
Brian Brett