How we know who to pay

Copyright is important to creators like writers, artists and publishers, as it provides them with a legal right of ownership over the work that they create. This enables them to receive payment for their work and make a fair living from it.

One of the ways they can earn money is by receiving a fair payment when their work is used by others. Through making royalty payments to authors, visual artists and publishers we are supporting them and the creative industries so they can continue to produce the valuable content we all use.

We work out who to pay by asking our licensed customers what work they copied from time-to-time so we can allocate royalties to the people whose work has been used. 

The way we collect this information is by selecting a number of licensees, from across a range of licensed sectors, to take part in data collection exercises over a limited sample period. Over the years we have developed a number of ways for licensed customers to submit this information to us, making it as easy as possible for you to tell us what you copy.

Watch the video to see more about how we know who to pay.