We are twenty-three American creators’ organizations, representing over 85,000 authors, photographers and artists, united to receive foreign reprographic royalties and direct them to benefit every American creator.

Through Our Member Associations

Non-title-specific foreign reprographic royalties received by ACA are distributed to our Member Associations. These funds are mandated to benefit every American creator, and not just an organization’s members.

ACA funds have supported American creators through:

  • Federal copyright advocacy initiatives on behalf of visual and text creators
  • Copyright amicus briefs
  • Copyright education for creators
  • Advocacy with the U.S. Copyright Office
  • First Amendment amicus briefs
  • Coordination and drafting of judicial amicus briefs in all levels of the courts, on behalf of all photographers
  • Advocacy for collective bargaining rights for freelance creators
  • Direct support of creators’ First Amendment rights
  • Scholarship programs
  • Grant programs
  • Diversity programs
  • Model contracts
  •  Advocacy regarding the impact of generative artificial intelligence on both visual creators and authors
  • Advocacy and litigation opposing book banning efforts
  • Authors’ and creators’ access to legal advice
  • Educational webinars and seminars available to all creators
  • Arts outreach for the incarcerated
  • Educational programming including You Tube channels
  • Books outreach programs to underserved communities
  • Access to music education for all students
  • Protection and preservation of indigenous music

Through Our Individual Author Distributions Program

ACA pays title-specific foreign reprographic royalties directly to identified photographers, artists and writers. We are proud to help support a vibrant, growing American arts community. To date, over $3 million has been paid to more than 3,000 creators. Are we looking for you? Visit our Individual Author Distributions Program page to find out.

“Over the last 80 years, ASMP has been a resource for not only the current generation of professionals, but the next generation as well. The new EPP bridges this gap by providing a cost-effective resource that only ASMP can offer,” says ASMP National Board Chair Kevin Brusie.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is exploring potential litigation against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other federal agencies following reports that journalists and visual journalists have been harassed, detained, injured, or otherwise retaliated against while documenting immigration-related activity.

While this settlement will not realign the relationship between publishers and authors, it is crucial that we send a united message—from authors and publishers alike—that we will not stand by while our work is stolen. In that respect, the $1.5 billion penalty on Anthropic serves its purpose, delivers that warning, and the settlement is a victory.

The Graphic Artists Guild has endorsed the California bill AB-412, introduced by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan. The legislation seeks to increase transparency around the use of copyrighted materials to train generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). It requires model developers to provide copyright owners a means by which they could be informed on whether and how their copyrighted works wer