Who receives copyright fees paid by the TAFE sector

We provide detailed information in our annual reports (here) about how we distribute copyright fees, including from the TAFE sector.

We allocated copyright fees from the TAFE sector in June 2023, and most recipients received their payments before 30 June 2023. The fees were from the Victorian TAFE sector for July 2022 to June 2023, and from the other TAFE sectors for January to December 2022.

Amounts set aside for writers and Artists

We set aside a percentage of the copyright fees from the TAFE sector for writers and artists respectively, primarily those who do not have arrangements with publishers for a share of Copyright Agency allocations and may not otherwise receive a payment. We combine these amounts with amounts set aside from other sources (such as universities and schools), for the Annual Writers Distribution and the Annual Artists Distribution. The 2023 Annual Writers Distribution totalled $5.3m, and the 2023 Annual Artists Distribution totalled $4.8m.

Together with the copyright fees from other sources, we allocated:

• $0.32m from the TAFE sector to more than 3,800 artists
• $0.17m from the TAFE sector to more than 5,600 writers

Writers and artists also receive allocations from the ‘main’ distribution (the balance of fees), both directly from us and indirectly from their employers and publishers.

‘Main’ distribution (balance of copyright fees)

We allocated the balance of copyright fees (nearly $2m) to more than 1,600 recipients in the following sectors. Recipients include organisations that employ writers and artists, as well as freelance writers and artists who receive a share of Copyright Agency allocations to books, either directly from us, or indirectly from their publishers.

86% of the copyright fees were allocated to Australian recipients.

Sources of information for the distribution

The distribution was based data provided by TAFE institutes about library borrowings.

Allocations to books

Our systems and processes encourage publishers to register the shares of allocations to books that are due to freelance writers and illustrators under their publishing contracts. Writers and illustrators can also request registration of shares. Registration of shares enables us to pay the writers and artists directly.

There were allocations from the main distribution, totalling $0.25m, to recipients with registered shares for books (writers, illustrators and publishers). Of these, allocations totalling $0.12m were for writers and illustrators. The remainder, totalling $0.13m, were for publishers.

There were also allocations to books, totalling about $1.64m, for which we did not have registered shares. We do not have information about amounts passed on by publishers to writers and illustrators from these payments.

Recipients of Copyright Agency payments also have writers and artists on staff, or are self-publishers of content that they create.

Information in diagrammatic form

You can see information set out above in diagrammatic form here.

November 2023