DACS (The Design and Artists Copyright Society) distributes over £4 million in royalties through their Payback scheme each year. The money covers things such as the photocopying of visual work in books and magazines (known as secondary rights) which we’d not be able to bill for individually. If you are a Payback claimant then you will have had an email from DACS asking you to become a DACS member and to give DACS an exclusive licence to negotiate, claim and administer your secondary rights.

Forthcoming changes in the law have put these rights – and the payments we receive – under threat. There are other organisations that may try to claim that they already own these rights and can licence them without making the payments to us that we currently receive through Payback. In order to protect our income DACS needs to be able to demonstrate that they and no other organisation has the right to administer these secondary rights in our work.

EPUK recommends that you accept the DACS terms and sign up as requested.