DACS claim

[mathieubmorin]

Finding usage? Alamy sales reports say if it's in a book or not. The bands for numbers of books sales are pretty wide, (0-50, 50-100, 100-300 or something) so you don't have to know exact numbers. If you are one or two short of the next band I'd claim for that - you're bound to have a couple of unreported sales out there somewhere.

 

As for income, I usually regard it as a thirteenth month - in recent years it has been a bit above my Alamy monthly average.

 

And in previous years the numbers have included ALL sales in the past, up to the date claimed - those books are all still out there in libraries and available to be photocopied. Please let me know if this has changed this year - I haven't been online to do the form yet this year. The email says I have 192 sales - is that just new ones since the last claim? I've had a lot more than that since I started.

 

I think you asked an important question. Can we claim every year for all past image sales or only the images that have been sold since the previous claim? Because if you can always claim for the same images every year (because of their continued usage out there), that means I could have claimed for the last 3 years!

 

Also, I did a Google check in books but couldn't find any of my work Alamy is reporting to me. Does that mean I wasn't credited in those books? And if so that means, as stated on DACS website, that I cannot give "examples of where your work has been featured, with proof" (such as ISSN or ISBN), so I cannot make a claim myself....?

 

Math

[amycicconi]

Should I choose only those sales that are country:United Kingdom, or, to country: worldwide or country: world english language count?

 

If newspapers don't count, I can't figure out how to balance to the number Alamy quoted.

[John Mitchell]

Four pages of comments from the email this morning makes me feel good about my decision....my thoughts....I'm glad Alamy decided to take this up on our behalf (being a "foreign" photographer outside the UK) because I don't understand the whole thing, I'd rather be out making images, and I'd rather let someone else deal with the headaches LOL

 

THANK YOU ALAMY - looking forward to getting that extra cash

 

Ditto. It's all too much for my tiny "foreign" brain as well. Just scanned the completed Authorisation Form provided by Alamy.

[James Burger]

Am I daft, or is there a reason that I can't find any reference to a "DACS payback collecting society in the United States?" (Not on Google, on the DACS UK website, not in this forum...) Can't Alamy simply list the collecting societies for at least the ten most represented nations? This all feels like offering a needy person charity but sending them on a scavenger hunt to collect it. I was glad to receive the email ealier today, but after speding too much time chasing this wild goose, I wish I hadn't see that email or the correction.

 

I would love to know how to identify the collecting society in the United States.

 

Thanks to anyone who can point in the right direction.

 

Best to all.

[KWheal]

You cannot claim for RF sales unless you know for sure where it was used as alamy does not give you those details. One downside of going down the RF route

 

Kevin

[stipe]

Is Alamy paying only 2013 or previous years as well?

[HH72]

Hi everyone - it's my first time claiming with DACS... do we include RF sales? I've read through the forums but can't find a definitive answer to this.

Thanks

[Allan Bell]

 

 

 

 

Alamy says the following in the e-mail that they sent out:

 

"As you're outside the UK DACS encourage you to claim via the collecting society in your country of residence as DACS distribute Payback royalties to those  societies each year."

 

Does anyone know how to find out what "the collection society" in one's country (Canada in my case) might be? All this is new and confusing to me. 

 

Thanks/Merci

 

Try googling "Canada collection society"

 

Allan

 

 

Wikipedia provides a long and bewildering list of such societies around the world:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_copyright_collection_societies

 

Think I might just let Alamy do the work for me. They say I have 33 possible claims, so it certainly sounds worthwhile.

 

 

John try these people first.  www.carcc.ca

 

You could save giving 50% of your earnings away to Alamy.

 

Allan

 

 

Thanks, Allan. Why do you recommend this outfit?

 

 

Sorry to be late with reply John. I was just trying to be helpful and searched Google on your behalf to find a collection agency in Canada. Don't know anything about them though.

 

Ups! Too late I see you have gone ahead with Alamy.

 

Allan

[tarsierspectral]

There is nothing complicated about this.  I don't get why people would let Alamy do it on their behalf and get 50% less.  Just go to DACS website and fill out a form.  Takes 5min.  Nothing complicated about it.  Straight forward.  You don't need to do this through any society.

[stipe]

There is nothing complicated about this.  I don't get why people would let Alamy do it on their behalf and get 50% less.  Just go to DACS website and fill out a form.  Takes 5min.  Nothing complicated about it.  Straight forward.  You don't need to do this through any society.

 

Which form are you talking about? You have to fulfil all the data on line including give proof of books' ISBN where your pics were published and newspapers/mags as well. It is written those data are compulsory.

Would be great if instead of saying it's incredibly easy, someone who was able to fulfil the form without any problem would help us!

[DarrylWebb]

Stipe, you're asking the exact questions I have in my head.

 

I assume they mean the 2009 blog entry 'DACS : help with claiming for payback 2009' under 'Advice and tips'.

I tried to hyperlink it, but the forum won't let me.

 

There certainly seem to be snippets of information scattered everywhere to successfully claim, but none of it is pulled together in one place.

Thanks to Alamy for bringing DACS to our attention. Hopefully some kind soul can provide an idiot's guide. (It's only easy if you know how).

[ann]

Since I'm in USA, I checked DAC sister society arsny,com and vagarights.com, and on the Vaga site found this:

 

"In some countries, artists and rights holders are entitled to a royalty payment upon the resale of their works of art. American-born artists are not currently entitled to receive this money because the U.S. does not have its own resale royalty law. VAGA and other American organizations recently introduced a bill to Congress that would make resale rights a U.S. law.

 

If an artist was born outside the U.S. or has residency outside the U.S., it is possible he or she or an estate may be eligible to collect royalties. The laws in foreign countries typically only authorize payments to be made to copyright collectives, who in turn, distribute the money to individual rights holders. If you think you may be eligible, please contact us."

(Vagarights.com)

 

Doesn't this sound like artists in USA do NOT currently qualify for a DAC-type royalty payment?

 

- Ann

[Reimar]

You cannot claim for RF sales unless you know for sure where it was used as alamy does not give you those details. One downside of going down the RF route

 

Kevin

Alamy tell me that I have 94 licences that qualify.  I see 227 of my images sold in the UK.  Of these 30 are in 2013, so this goes back to 2006, and 34 are L licences. 

Cleary, Alamy knows which RF licences qualify, but I take it they intend to keep this secret, so that I have to split the fee with them.  For those saying this is dead simple, it seems more like mission impossible.

[John Mitchell]

There is nothing complicated about this.  I don't get why people would let Alamy do it on their behalf and get 50% less.  Just go to DACS website and fill out a form.  Takes 5min.  Nothing complicated about it.  Straight forward.  You don't need to do this through any society.

 

Are you based in the UK?

[Chrissie]

What problem do you have? Have you registered with DACS and seen the form? It really is easy once you've added up all your UK book/magazine usages - you then submit 3 sample usage details for each category.

 

There is nothing complicated about this.  I don't get why people would let Alamy do it on their behalf and get 50% less.  Just go to DACS website and fill out a form.  Takes 5min.  Nothing complicated about it.  Straight forward.  You don't need to do this through any society.

 

Which form are you talking about? You have to fulfil all the data on line including give proof of books' ISBN where your pics were published and newspapers/mags as well. It is written those data are compulsory.

Would be great if instead of saying it's incredibly easy, someone who was able to fulfil the form without any problem would help us!

 

[DarrylWebb]

This DACS process is new to me, but here's what I'm doing. Hopefully it helps someone.

 

So if Alamy don't tell us the ISDN's etc. and claim the Alamy sales report is good enough for DACS.....

 

I see at as 2 stages.

The first is to build a sales report. I've got this far, which is why I'm posting this info here.

The second stage is to slip this report into the DACS form somehow. I'm still working on that.

 

So the first stage, building the sales report, I did as follows :

 

1. From 'My Alamy' page, click 'build a downloadable sales report' from the link just above the graph.

2. That opens the 'net revenue' page. In the top right, set 'from date' to when you started with Alamy (or perhaps that's the last date from when you claimed DACS if you've been doing it each year?), set 'to date' to 31/12/2013, set last box to 'date cleared', although for me the data produced is no different from leaving it as 'date paid'

3. Press' GO' to get a report.

4. Press 'download' to drop it into your PC. This is the .CSV file mentioned in earlier posts.

 

Now...

You need to get jiggy with Excel.

5. Open the file (if not already open)

6. Filter the license column (G in my spreadsheet) to show L only. Your RF sales don't count in this exercise, it would appear (presumably because that license model takes no account of regions.)

7. Filter the region column (I in my spreadsheet) to show UK only.

8. Filter license detail column (H in my spreadsheet) by de-selecting all options, then add back in the selections for UK, Worldwide, World English Language magazine and print options (excluding newspaper of course as they're not part of DACS scheme).
BY doing step 6,7 & 8 I now have a list that matches exactly the 107 images for which Alamy say I can claim DACS.

 

Now I need to look at the DACS website to see how to send them the report.

[stipe]

Ok, I am going with Alamy! Better give 50% to them than wasting time here and we are already at page5!!!

[John Mitchell]

Still really confused. If I do decide to go it alone, can I claim all UK and Worldwide sales dating back to 2007 (when I made my first Alamy sale)  up to the end of 2013? This would probably amount to several hundred sales at this point. Or would I have to submit a different DACS form for each year that I haven't claimed? Or have I blown it?  Can I even claim sales made in years prior to 2013?

 

Confused in The Colonies (former colony, anyway)

 

P.S. A couple of other dumb questions. Just to get it straight, in order to make a DACS claim myself for 2013, I would create/download my Alamy sales report from January 1, 2013 until December 31, 2013 and remove all non-UK and non-Worldwide sales. Also, the DACS claim is calculated only on sales for which I was actually paid in 2013 irrespective of when they were invoiced (e.g. 2012). Correct? Or do they base the claim on "Date Cleared"?

[Mike@Meonshore]

Whilst I'm shooting myself in the bank balance here (the finite amount of money gets divided up by the number of claimants).....

 

DACS collects an amount of money from institutions and individuals who may have duplicated or otherwise used printed materials from books or magazines, and TV. These printed materials might have been published in 2013 or 1960 it matters not. Same for TV/Film. There is no need to prove yours might have been used, just that you have material in circulation that *might* have been. Note: Newspapers don't count, not does non-UK usage (although there is something about the NL in there).

 

1) The single claim is a cumulative number of images you have sold across books, magazines, and TV/Film EVER. Since that gives the amount you have in circulation that *might* have been copied/reused.

 

2) I keep a running record of sales of books and magazines (no TV yet - close but no cigar sadly) each year and then just add the increment to next years claim. Your first claim is always the most complicated, after that it really is a 5 minute job.

 

3) You are in buckets of different volumes which generate the payment level, you hope that one year you move up a bucket and so on - if you do you need to provide a new ISBN/ISSN number to "prove" that you have sold something recently or that your Alamy statement back this up in lieu of actual details. This year I'm in the same bucket as last year.

 

4) It really is quite simple and relatively easy (in fact easier than it used to be) to claim - I'd hate to lose 50% for such a small amount of effort.

 

As a UK citizen I haven't had the complexity but I'm sure it isn't much harder and you only lose 20% not 50%.

[John Mitchell]

Whilst I'm shooting myself in the bank balance here (the finite amount of money gets divided up by the number of claimants).....

 

DACS collects an amount of money from institutions and individuals who may have duplicated or otherwise used printed materials from books or magazines, and TV. These printed materials might have been published in 2013 or 1960 it matters not. Same for TV/Film. There is no need to prove yours might have been used, just that you have material in circulation that *might* have been. Note: Newspapers don't count, not does non-UK usage (although there is something about the NL in there).

 

1) The single claim is a cumulative number of images you have sold across books, magazines, and TV/Film EVER. Since that gives the amount you have in circulation that *might* have been copied/reused.

 

2) I keep a running record of sales of books and magazines (no TV yet - close but no cigar sadly) each year and then just add the increment to next years claim. Your first claim is always the most complicated, after that it really is a 5 minute job.

 

3) You are in buckets of different volumes which generate the payment level, you hope that one year you move up a bucket and so on - if you do you need to provide a new ISBN/ISSN number to "prove" that you have sold something recently or that your Alamy statement back this up in lieu of actual details. This year I'm in the same bucket as last year.

 

4) It really is quite simple and relatively easy (in fact easier than it used to be) to claim - I'd hate to lose 50% for such a small amount of effort.

 

As a UK citizen I haven't had the complexity but I'm sure it isn't much harder and you only lose 20% not 50%.

 

Thanks for shooting yourself in the bank account, Mike. Very decent of you. We owe you one.

 

Something else I don't quite understand is that in the e-mail Alamy sent me, they mention that I have 33 possible licenses that I can claim (for 2013, I assume). Looking back over my sales record for 2013, I count 52 "Worldwide" leases (no UK ones), so I don't know what criteria Alamy was using. Going back to 2007, I probably have several hundred Alamy sales that might qualify. I also have many Worldwide and probably UK licenses -- going back to God knows when --  that I've made on my own and through other outlets and that I've never claimed through DACS. Do I shoot myself now or later?

[Jools Elliott]

Evening all

 

OK, to make it simpler for those that haven't signed up for DACS and haven't seen the questions. They go like this:

 

How many books have your images been published in the UK?

 

1 to 2

3 to 6

7 to 25

26 to 45

46 to 180

181 or more

 

How Many Images Within those Books

 

1 to 18

19 to 45

46 to 200

201 to 500

501 or more

 

 

How many Magazines & Journals has your work been published in the UK?

 

1 to 3

4 to 25

26 to 75

76 to 125

126 to 300

301 or more

 

In all of these magazines and journals, how many times were your works used in total?

 

1 to 30

31 to 120

121 to 300

301 to 1200

1201 or more

 

 

TV Claims

 

Remember you can only claim for artistic works included in any television programmes broadcast on the following channels in 2013 only: BBC1, BBC 2, BBC3, BBC 4, BBC News 24, BBC Parliament, CBBC, CBeebies, ITV1, C4, S4C, Channel 5.

 

REMEMBER THAT THE IMAGES ARE JUST FOR THE CURRENT CLAIM YEAR

 

1 to 2

3 to 6

etc

 

Hopefully you will find the information of use

 

Jools (currently on holiday and trying not to check in on here but can't resist it)

[Reimar]

Yes, that's the page I'm stuck on.  All I have is Alamy's total number of qualifying licenses: 94

That includes all licenses from 2006 to 2013.  I have never claimed for previous years - I suppose I just lost out thinking this was only for UK photographers.

Do you guy's just make the rest up?

5 minutes?  I've spent one hour and found one of my images in a UK magazine in 2013.

[John Mitchell]

 

Evening all

 

OK, to make it simpler for those that haven't signed up for DACS and haven't seen the questions. They go like this:

 

How many books have your images been published in the UK?

 

1 to 2

3 to 6

7 to 25

26 to 45

46 to 180

181 or more

 

How Many Images Within those Books

 

1 to 18

19 to 45

46 to 200

201 to 500

501 or more

 

 

How many Magazines & Journals has your work been published in the UK?

 

1 to 3

4 to 25

26 to 75

76 to 125

126 to 300

301 or more

 

In all of these magazines and journals, how many times were your works used in total?

 

1 to 30

31 to 120

121 to 300

301 to 1200

1201 or more

 

 

TV Claims

 

Remember you can only claim for artistic works included in any television programmes broadcast on the following channels in 2013 only: BBC1, BBC 2, BBC3, BBC 4, BBC News 24, BBC Parliament, CBBC, CBeebies, ITV1, C4, S4C, Channel 5.

 

REMEMBER THAT THE IMAGES ARE JUST FOR THE CURRENT CLAIM YEAR

 

1 to 2

3 to 6

etc

 

Hopefully you will find the information of use

 

Jools (currently on holiday and trying not to check in on here but can't resist it)

 

 

Thanks, but I have no idea how I would figure some of this stuff out -- e.g. "In all of these magazines and journals, how many times were your works used in total?" Also, what if I claim beyond the current claim year -- going back to 2007? Or do you mean "current claim years"?

[John Mitchell]

Yes, that's the page I'm stuck on.  All I have is Alamy's total number of qualifying licenses: 94

That includes all licenses from 2006 to 2013.  I have never claimed for previous years - I suppose I just lost out thinking this was only for UK photographers.

Do you guy's just make the rest up?

5 minutes?  I've spent one hour and found one of my images in a UK magazine in 2013.

 

Looking over my Alamy sales record from 2007 until the end of 2013, I see the following sales that might (?) qualify:

 

UK licenses -- 19

Worldwide -- 119

World English Language -- 58

 

On the DACS form, I can see where to indicate the UK licenses, but how about all the others?

[Guest]

http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/frequently-asked-questions#FAQ164

 

"You can claim for any artwork or photograph that has appeared in a UK book or magazine up until the end of the previous year, so long as you own the copyright."

 

It's only for UK published books/journals/magazines, a worldwide book published in another territory does not, does not count!!