Glossary
Your go-to A-Z guide providing short explanations of the legal terms, acronyms and abbreviations mentioned throughout our website.
Frequently used terms
Annual General Meeting
Annual General Meetings (AGMs) allow for
Voting members to attend and vote on DACS matters, for example to appoint or remove a Board Director, to approve our financial documentation or other governance matters. DACS AGMs tend to take place in September each year.
Art Market Professional
Often referred to as an 'AMP', an Art Market Professional is a gallery, auction house or art dealer who facilitates resale of artworks, as defined by legislation. AMPs are our customers, for whom we provide a resale right service.
Artist’s Resale Right member
In the UK, the Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) entitles artists and their heirs to a royalty when their works are resold by an auction house, gallery or dealer for €1000 or more subject to certain conditions. If you are an ARR member you will have signed an ARR
Membership Agreement that mandates DACS to collect ARR royalties on your behalf and distribute these to you. Visit our
Artists and
Beneficiaries sections of the website to find about more about how to join this service.
Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 (as amended)
Referred to in short as the CDPA, the
Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 (as amended) is the main instrument of UK copyright legislation. DACS' work is founded upon the rights granted under section 16 CDPA for rightsholders in artistic works, which are defined in section 4 CDPA.
Collective Management Organisation
A Collective Management Organisation, or CMO as it's often referred, is an organisation that, as its sole or main purpose, manages copyright on behalf of copyright holders on a collective benefit and is either controlled by its members or organised on a not-for-profit basis. DACS is a CMO and as such abides by the Collective Management of Copyright (EU Directive) Regulations 2016.
The Collective Rights Management (CRM) Directive / UK CRM Regulations
The
European Commission (EC) passed an EU law (Directive 2014/26/EU) in 2014 to ensure all European collecting societies managing copyright are regulated to a similar standard.
Directive 2014/26/EU is referred to as
The Collective Rights Management (CRM) Directive. This was implemented by the UK in April 2016 as the
Collective Management of Copyright (EU Directive) Regulations 2016. DACS refers to this law as the CRM Regulations.
Copyright Licensing member
A Copyright Licensing member will have signed a Copyright Licensing
Membership Agreement giving an exclusive grant of rights to DACS so that DACS may authorise third parties to reproduce their work on terms set out in our
Licensing Terms and Conditions.
Membership for Copyright Licensing is open to artists or heirs of a deceased artist. Visit our
Artists and
Beneficiaries sections of the website for more information about joining this service.
On signing your Copyright Licensing
Membership Agreement you also have the option to become a
Voting member if you fulfil the membership requirements.
DACS member
If you have signed any
Membership Agreement with DACS, we consider you to be a DACS member – you are an important part of DACS and we work to ensure that your copyright and related rights are safeguarded. DACS operates different services and revenue streams, which are outlined in our
Artists and
Beneficiaries sections, and as such you can have a number of different
Membership Agreements with DACS. Not every DACS member however is a
Voting member, for which you need to fulfil certain membership criteria.
Extraordinary General Meeting
Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs) allow for
Voting members to vote on DACS matters that need to occur outside of the
Annual General Meeting (AGM) schedule, for example if DACS’ Articles of Association need to be amended to comply with legislation coming into force before an AGM could take place.
Licensing Terms and Conditions
The terms and conditions on the basis of which we license the works of our
Copyright Licensing members to licensing customers.
Membership Agreement
You may sign a number of different Membership Agreements with DACS, depending on which service or revenue streams you sign up to, such as
Artist's Resale Right or
Copyright Licensing.
Payback
Payback is an annual distribution scheme run by DACS. We negotiate a share of collective licensing revenue for works by visual artists which are reproduced in publications like books and magazines but also in TV programmes. Visit our
Artists and
Beneficiaries sections to find out more about how to sign up for this service.
Payback claimant/member
If you receive money from Payback annually you are a Payback claimant/member and you or your nominated authorised representative, such as your picture library, will have filled out a Payback claim form. If you are a
Copyright Licensing member, you do not have to make a Payback claim as we do this for you having direct access to the licensing activities regarding your works.
Public Lending Right (PLR)
This is a legal right requiring libraries to pay a royalty to creators with copyright in the books they lend out. We receive a share of Dutch PLR royalties each year from our Dutch sister society, Pictoright, to distribute to visual artists in the UK whose work is in books lent by libraries in the Netherlands. Find out how to sign up for Dutch PLR royalties
here. Royalties from UK and Irish PLR are distributed by the
British Library.
Voting member
All Voting members are eligible to attend our
Annual General Meetings (AGMs) and vote on matters of the company, for example to appoint or remove a Board Director, to approve our financial documentation or other governance matters.
DACS reintroduced Voting membership (previously known as Company Law membership) in 2014 to ensure that artists have a greater say in the running of the organisation. However, it is important for the fair and balanced interest of all of
DACS members that AGM participation is granted to those who provide DACS with the greatest transfer of their rights.
Voting membership is open to artists or heirs of deceased artists who are
Copyright Licensing members and who agree to the terms of the
Membership Agreement for Voting members. Find out more about it
here.
Acronyms and abbreviations
Governmental departments and organisations in the wider copyright and intellectual property rights community:
A representative body uniting different types of creators and rightsholders through their membership of trade organisations, collecting societies and rightsholder representatives. The BCC lobbies governments on behalf of its members and monitors legal developments concerning its members. DACS is a member of the BCC.
A UK government department which has responsibility for arts and culture.
The official UK government body responsible for intellectual property (IP) rights including patents, designs, trademarks and copyright. We lobby UK IPO to keep the visual creators’ perspective firmly in front of the government.
Organisations involved in the collection and distribution of collective licensing royalties through services such as Payback:
A
reproduction rights organisation (RRO) which manages collective licensing of reprographic copying of books and journals in the UK. DACS is a member of CLA, and visual creators are currently allocated an 8.7% share of CLA licensing revenue, a share of which is paid out each year through our
Payback service. The CLA was founded by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS).
A
Collective Management Organisation (CMO) licensing the educational recording of TV broadcasts. DACS is a member of ERA and receives 2% of ERA revenue.
An international network of
RRO societies based in Belgium. DACS is an associate member of IFRRO.
Manages collective licensing of simultaneous cable/satellite retransmission of UK terrestrial broadcasts in Ireland. DACS receives 1.1% of revenue collected via IMRO.
An
RRO managing collective licensing for newspapers. DACS receives no money for artists from NLA currently.
RRO - Reproduction Rights Organisation
An entity which manages collective licensing of reprography.
Organisations in the art trade who are involved in the administration of the Artist's Resale Right (ARR):
UK trade association for antique dealers. BADA members are our customers for ARR.
UK trade association for art and antique dealers. LAPADA members are our customers for ARR.
Principal trade association in London for dealers in visual art. SLAD members are our customers for ARR.
The foundation of TEFAF Maastricht art fair, which produces an annual art market report.
Organisations involved in policy and advocacy regarding intellectual property rights:
The visual arts branch of CISAC. DACS is a member of CIAGP.
International grouping of all authors' and creators' societies. DACS is an associate member.
The executive body of the European Union responsible for proposing legislation. DACS lobbies the EC to ensure the rights of visual creators are taken into account when legislating.
A European economic interest group. DACS is a member, along with many other European visual artists' collecting societies.
Global organisation representing authors’ interests in copyright and contracts, based in the UK. DACS is a member of IAF.
A European economic interest group in the visual arts sector. DACS is a member of OLA.
A standing committee of World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) that examine matters of substantive law or harmonisation in the field of copyright and related rights, including the Artist's Resale Right.
Agency of the United Nations aiming to establish balances intellectual property system globally. DACS delivers training to WIPO delegates at annual
BCC copyright training session. DACS supports the campaign to lobby WIPO for an international resale right.