FAQs for Creator Affiliates
For FAQs About Payback™, please click here.
- Own reproduction rights to at least one work published in a print format such as a book, magazine, newspaper or scholarly journal and is also commercially available.
- Not already affiliated with any other reproduction rights organization (such as COPIBEC in Quebec).
- You are a writer, editor, translator and/or visual artist (i.e. illustrator, photographer, designer).
Who can become an affiliate of Access Copyright?
If you are a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident, outside the province of Quebec, you are eligible to register for affiliation with Access Copyright provided that you meet the following requirements:
How do I become an affiliate?
Please click here to learn how to become affiliated with Access Copyright.
Can I register online to become an affiliate?
Yes. An online registration tool is available on our website.
Is there a fee to become an affiliate?
No. Affiliation with Access Copyright is free. However, Access Copyright retains a percentage of royalties collected to cover our administrative costs. Only those benefiting from a distribution contribute to the cost of operations. Access Copyright's Board of Directors sets the administrative holdback fee each year.
Do I need to send in a new affiliation application each year?
No. Once you are an affiliate, you do not need to renew your affiliation every year. It will not expire unless you submit written instructions for us to cancel your affiliation. However, we do occasionally update our affiliation agreement to offer more services. In this case, you may be required to sign a new affiliation agreement. When this happens, we will notify our affiliates that a new affiliation agreement is available.
How many published works do I need to have to be an affiliate?
You must have at least one published work in print format and own reproduction rights for that work, to affiliate.
Should I let Access Copyright know when I publish new titles? Do I need to submit a complete works list?
No. You are not required to send in regular updates to your works list. If Access Copyright receives a report that your works have been copied by our licensees, our staff will build records in our Payback Management System for those works and will attach them to your affiliate profile to facilitate royalty payments. We may contact you from time to time to confirm that you are the creator of a work that has appeared in our reports. As a result, we ask that you please ensure that the contact information we have on file for you is kept up to date.
If I'm Canadian, but am published primarily in the U.S. and U.K., is it still worth my while to affiliate?
Yes. Through reciprocal agreements with other reproduction rights organizations, Access Copyright affiliates are represented in other countries around the world, including the U.S. and U.K. These agreements ensure representation of Canadian authors and Canadian publications in other territories and also allow us to represent foreign publications in Canada.
Can I become both a publisher and creator affiliate?
Yes, however, if you publish only your own material, you can only affiliate as a creator.
If I am a member of PWAC (or any other Access Copyright member organization), does that automatically make me an Access Copyright affiliate?
No. Being a member of an Access Copyright member organization does not automatically make you an affiliate. Please click here to learn how to become affiliated with Access Copyright.
