Code Reviewer’s report for 2017–18
December 10, 2018
The report by the Code Reviewer on collecting societies’ compliance with the Code of Conduct in 2017–18 is now available here. Each annual report on compliance looks at, among other things, Copyright Agency’s management of complaints.
Copyright Agency provided information to the Code Reviewer on seven matters, raised by members and licensees in 2017–18, that are covered in the report.
Matters raised by members were:
- decrease in payments since 2015; change in distribution process, from 2018, for images copied with text
- absence of recent payments
- pursuit of infringement claim on member’s behalf for unlicensed use of images
Matters raised by licensees were:
- termination arrangements for licence with private business school
- follow up by debt collection agency for non-payment by public relations firm of invoice for licence for 2018–19
- reference to prospective licensee’s past use of newspaper content, and whether it may have been unauthorised, in email to prospective licensee regarding purchase of a Copyright Agency business licence
- termination arrangements for a business licence (where the licensee had agreed to the licence in 2015 as part of the settlement of a copyright infringement matter, on which the licensee had received legal advice)
The Bureau of Communications and Arts Research in the Department of Communications and the Arts conducted a review of the Code of Conduct in 2017–18: see here and here. A final report from the review is expected soon.