the alcs logo authors licensing and collecting society ltd. type company limited by guarantee founded 23 march 1977 headquarters 1st floor barnard s inn 86 fetter lane london ec4a 1en england uk area served united kingdom key people maureen duffy honorary president owen atkinson chief executive adam singer chair . services copyright collective website www.alcs.co.uk the alcs collects on behalf of its members and distributes to them royalties for among other things the photocopying of authors works . the authors licensing and collecting society alcs is a british organisation that works to ensure that writers are fairly compensated for any of their works that are copied broadcast or recorded . it has operated in the united kingdom since 1977 . from that year to 2015 the alcs distributed over 350 million to authors and at the end of 2015 had in excess of 89 000 members . contents 1 history 2 aims and operation 3 governance 4 criticism 5 references 6 external links history edit alcs was founded in 1977 after a long campaign in the united kingdom by the writers action group wag for writers to receive remuneration for the lending of their works by libraries . then known as the authors lending and copyright society it was incorporated on 23 march 1977 to handle payments from verwertungsgesellschaft wort vg wort the word exploitation corporation for the german public lending right plr ; the british plr ; belgian cable television ; and reprography photocopying royalties . 1 however the organization that was eventually responsible for distributing the fees obtained from the lending of books in libraries was the public lending right . 1 in 1982 the copyright licensing agency was founded by alcs and the publishers licensing society pls . alcs receives the majority of its income 65 70 % from the cla s photocopying licensing schemes . 1 aims and operation edit alcs represents the interests of many uk writers and aims to ensure they are fairly compensated for any works that are copied broadcast or recorded . the organisation is dedicated to protecting and promoting authors rights by encouraging the establishment of collective licensing schemes where appropriate and ensuring that fees resulting from such schemes are efficiently collected and distributed ; and by building an understanding of the value of the contribution writers make to society . alcs s ordinary members sign a mandate that authorizes the society to license and collect royalties on their behalf . alcs is granted authority to exercise rights on each author s behalf as part of schemes for the collective administration of royalties in the uk and abroad . the rights range from photocopying scanning and cable retransmission in the uk and internationally to reproduction in journals . the authority entitles alcs in agreed circumstances to permit or forbid the exercise of the rights grant licences collect fees for use and damages for misuse and take action to defend and protect the rights . 2 alcs works closely with other writers organisations such as the society of authors and writers guild of great britain . from its inception in 1977 alcs has distributed over 400 million to authors and in the financial year 2014 2015 it paid 30 million to almost 70 000 writers . 3 as an authority on copyright matters and authors interests the alcs is committed to fostering an awareness of intellectual property issues among the writing community . it monitors matters affecting copyright both in the uk and internationally and makes regular representations on writers behalf to the uk government and the european commission . alcs also administers the all party writers group . governance edit the alcs is governed by a board of 10 directors the majority of whom are working writers . the board is responsible for the overall performance of the society which is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee . 4 criticism edit the alcs often claim to represent all authors 5 but actually many authors are not members or disagree with the policies of the alcs 6 references edit a b c past authors licensing and collecting society retrieved 2008 02 19 . the plain english mandate authors licensing and collecting society retrieved 2008 02 19 . authors licensing and collecting society . www.alcs.co.uk . retrieved 2016 01 07 . governance and the board of directors authors licensing and collecting society retrieved 2008 02 19 . what we do authors licensing and collecting society retrieved 2016 09 25 licensing and collecting societies retrieved 2016 09 25 . external links edit the authors licensing and collecting society website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title authors % 27 licensing and collecting society & oldid 741124601 categories organizations established in 1977british literaturebritish writerscopyright collection societiesclubs and societies in the united kingdom1977 establishments in the united kingdomhidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 25 september 2016 at 15 01 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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