What we do

We’re the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society. We make sure writers are paid fairly when their works are used and fight for their rights. We collect money from all over the world, then pay it to our members. So far, we’ve paid a total of £750 million. 

We’re a not-for-profit organisation, with over 130,000 members. We’re open to all types of writer and owned by our members. The money we collect is for ‘secondary uses’ of their work – such as photocopies, cable retransmission, digital reproduction and educational recording.  

These sorts of rights typically bring in small amounts of money that are difficult for writers to monitor individually, so the most effective way to gather them is collectively. It takes tireless investigation, as well as experience and expertise. For decades we have worked to make the complex easy, and now with the help of our bespoke IT systems, we can collect money from all over the world through agreements with over 55 different societies in more than 40 countries. 

We also campaign and advocate to legislators to ensure writers’ rights are recognised and respected, both at a national and international level. By giving writers a powerful collective voice, we help protect rights, develop new sources of income and champion fair payment wherever writers’ works are used.  

We support our members’ ability to write by enhancing their income from collective licensing. As such, we measure our worth by the amount of money we’ve collected and paid to our members – as well as by our successes in advocating for writers and educating about copyright.