Russian Authors’ Society

Russian Authors’ Society (RAO) is a non-governmental society created by authors for copyright and intellectual property rights protection. The principal objective of RAO is managing Authors’ rights on a collective basis in those cases where their practical implementation in an individual order is complicated.

This is the case for activities such as public performance, broadcasting and cable retransmission. Its main functions are collection, distribution and payment of authors’ remuneration for different kinds of use of musical works, but it also offers a wide range of other services.

RAO administers property rights of authors and other right owners basing on relevant membership contracts and by virtue of state accreditation. RAO has over 26,000 membership contracts. RAO is the largest organisation among Russian collective management of copyright and intellectual property rights societies in terms of authors’ remuneration.