Simplifying copyright licensing for PR, Communications, Advertising and Marketing Agencies
December 4, 2019
Copyright Agency has redesigned the Copyright Licence for Public Relations, Communications, Advertising and Marketing Agencies, making copyright licensing simpler.*
Increased external sharing limits for agencies
The standard copyright limits included in the Copyright Agency Licence have been increased, allowing you to share Australian newspaper and magazine content on your agency’s social media platforms. You can now post up to 72 Australian newspaper articles to your agency’s website and 48 to your agency’s social media platforms.
The standard licence agreement has also been redrafted to distinguish between the rights you receive directly from the Copyright Agency under your annual licence agreement, and the rights you might receive via a Copyright Agency licensed media monitoring organisation (such as Isentia, Meltwater or Streem) under the ‘Downstream Licence’.
Client Sharing changes
The Copyright Agency Licence covers the day-to-day operations of your agency, including activities such as printing, photocopying, emailing within your organisation and posting content to your intranet.
If you also share newspaper and magazine articles with clients, you need to add ‘Client Sharing rights’ to your Copyright Agency Licence in order to be copyright compliant. These rights enable you to send newspaper and magazine articles to your clients, and authorise them to send newspaper and magazine articles to you.
Client Sharing rights used to be calculated on a per customer, per month basis. It has now been paired down to one simple calculation: how many articles, in total, your agency expects to send and receive over the Licence year.
Should your needs change during the year, for example if an unexpected EDM campaign comes up, you can easily top up your client sharing rights. Simply inform your Copyright Agency Licensing Consultant or Relationship Manager of the number of articles you require and the additional rights will be invoiced on a pro-rata basis, which you can then on-bill clients for as relevant.
Copyright compliance for clients of agencies
Where your client has an agreement with a Copyright Agency licensed media monitoring organisation (such as Isentia, Meltwater or Streem), it is most likely they will have a ‘Downstream Licence’ agreement in place. The ‘Downstream Licence’ allows them to make a copy of the content they receive from their Copyright Agency licensed media monitoring organisation and to communicate it internally to their employees or Directors via email or their Intranet.
Should clients need to share content externally – for example if they would like to put a news article on their website, post it to social media or email it out – they have two options:
- Take their own Copyright Agency Licence for year-round umbrella coverage.
- Head off to the Copyright Agency’s online licensing platform, the RightsPortal, to secure pay-per-use rights for Australian news and magazine articles.
We have a current Copyright Agency Licence in place – what do we need to do?
The simplified Copyright Licence for Public Relations, Communications, Advertising and Marketing Agencies will be phased in over the next Licence year, when you would normally speak to us to update your Licence details for the following year.
At the end of your current Licence year, we will provide you with a copy of the new Licence agreement to be signed.
For more information, please contact the Commercial Licensing team at licence.enquiries@copyright.com.au or on 02 9394 7600.
See the Copyright Licence guide
Download the PDF announcement
*This is a guide only. Terms, conditions, limits and exclusions apply. Refer to the licence agreement for full terms and conditions.