Copyright Agency

Copyright Agency is a non-profit rights management organisation. They collect, and distribute to rightsholders, copyright fees and royalties for the use of text and images, including uses of digital content. Copyright Agency is a company limited by guarantee whose members are rightsholders, including writers, artists and publishers.

Copyright Agency has agreements with similar organisations in other countries that enable it to collect and distribute copyright payments for Australian works used overseas, and for foreign works used in Australia. Copyright Agency was appointed by the Commonwealth Attorney-General in 1990 to manage the statutory licence in the Copyright Act 1968 for educational use of text and images (educational statutory licence), and by the Copyright Tribunal in 1998 to manage the statutory licence for government use of text and images (government statutory licence). These statutory licences allow uses of content without a copyright clearance provided fair payment is made to rightsholders.