A Reprographic Rights Organization (“RRO”) is a Non-Governmental Organization (“NGO”) chartered by its country’s government to collect and disburse money collected for the use of various electronic/mechanical devices to copy copyrighted works.

One example is an organization called Kopinor, a Norwegian RRO that acts as the collection agent for copier use in Norway. Copyrighted works are copied. Kopinor conducts studies of what copies are made and then charges a fee to the end user that is based on statistical surveys and remitted to Kopinor. Because these collections are not done by which specific book, manuscript, or song was copied, they are called Non-Title Specific Royalties (“NTSR”).

Yes, Copyright Clearance Center (“CCC”). More information about the American RRO can be found at http://www.copyright.com

Non-Title Specific Royalty — an NTSR is money due to authors for copies of their works, however, we do not know which specific author’s works. In our example above, because Kopinor does not know which author’s works were copied, they have decided to collect and disburse these funds on a collective and statistical, Non-Title Specific, basis using ACA as the counter-party to fairly disburse the funds.

Much goes to Norwegian authors. An RRO’s primary duty is to see that its country’s authors are compensated for copies made of their works.

It is important to first know how funds are collected. While methods vary by country, typically the RRO in a specific country has made an effort to statistically sample copied works and calculate an allocation of collections by type of work. The RRO will tell us, for example, they are remitting $300,000 to us and 10% of works copied were copyrighted sheet music.

Member Organizations receive a proportional share of each distribution based on a claim of published authors in each category for which money is received. In the example above $30,000 is allocated to Member Organizations representing sheet music authors. We have very specific rules on how a Member Organization documents or surveys their membership. Their claims are submitted by notarized affidavit and must be updated annually. Our goal is to have a transparent and fair process that recognizes on a proportional basis the value of copyrighted works of the professionals who make up our Member Organizations.

Our agreements with the RROs require Member Organizations use the funds to benefit all authors in the categories for which they receive funds, not just to the benefit of their members in general. This is because the RROs, as NGOs, are working within the context of laws and regulations imposed by their own governments. In general, the RRO is trying to “pay” the author at least indirectly for his work that was copied. For that reason, ACA Member Organizations are required to spend the money for the benefit of all authors of works defined by the categories.