Re: Copyright Clearance Center
I'm currently working for someone who's had several technical books
published, and he recently received a check for around $250 from this
organization. According to the enclosed material, this is royalties
for non-specific copying in Netherlands, Germany, and Spain, where
photocopy license fees are charged.
Based on a very brief look at their website, it seems the copyright
owner has to sign up for CCC to "manage" their copyright clearances. Did
your friend do this?
Most textbook (and other) publishers now do this as part of their contract
responsibilities.
On the face of it, this looks like free money. Does anyone know if
there's any catch we might be missing?
Playing devil's advocate... I wonder if this could be similar to the
organizations that find people who have unclaimed property and offer to
claim it for a hefty finder's fee.
The CCC deducts a % (used to be about 5%) of each fee before forwarding the
rest to the copyright holder.
I wonder if his portion of the
"photocopy license fees" would be much higher if he were able to claim
it directly.
Sure. But the cost for tracking down the individual photocopiers and
collecting that fee is considerably higher.
And I wonder if, when he endorses that check, he signs away
his right to do so.
Only for the specific photocopying instances covered by the royalty
statement. Not for any other instances, even for the same publication.
Just some cynical thoughts.
There is a heck of a lot to be cynical about, after all. The CCC system
isn't perfect. They only handle the transfer of funds for people who
-voluntarily- pay the fee. Personally, I'd like to see every journal
article and every book page marked with a teenytiny barcode. Photocopier
machinery would be equipped with sensors that would read the barcode, track
the # of copies, calculate the photocopying charges plus royalties for
anything exceeding the 'fair use' guidelines, and electronically transfer
the appropriate royalty fee from the bank account of the copier(person) to
the bank account of the copyright holder.
Until the details for that process are worked out, though, the CCC is
better than nothing.
Please use the email address in my signature. The address in the header
(used for auto-reply) will bounce.
/K@ ____________________________________ katnagel -at- eznet -dot- net
Kat Nagel, MasterWork Consulting Services Rochester NY
Technical writing/Editing/Document design/Web site planning
"The transformation of calories into words, of words into money,
and of money into calories again are the three basic cycles in a
freelance writer's metabolism." /Mary Kittredge, _Poison Pen_
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