PLR in Austria

austria

Since 1993 Austrian law has provided for a Public Lending Right. The lending of works is allowed by a statutory licence (therefore overruling the absolute right of rightsholders which is still effective for the rental right) on the condition that an ‘equitable’ remuneration is paid to the (responsible) Copyright Collecting Society. (The individual rightsowner is no longer allowed to claim this remuneration individually.)

Eleven Austrian copyright collecting societies entered into an agreement with the Austrian government and with the nine federal provinces for payments to be made for the lending of works (books as well as non-books). The parties agreed upon a lump sum deal with effect from 1 January 1994. The amount of the lump sum is 581.000 Euros and is
paid as an equitable remuneration by the Republic of Austria and the nine Federal Provinces. The contribution of the individual provinces is based on population.

The total amount is collected all by LVG and is distributed to the appropriate copyright collecting societies. Around 75% is paid out for loans of books, journals and
magazines.

The distribution of the collected fees:

LVG represents both authors and publishers of literary works. Therefore LVG has to distribute the sum agreed upon literature to authors and publishers. The rules of distribution of the other societies can be asked from the responsible CCSs.

Actually, 26% is being allocated for social and cultural purposes. The rest is to be distributed to authors and publishers individually (distribution amount) after deduction of 11% administrative costs.

A portion of 80% of this remaining “distribution amount” is distributed for loans in public libraries and a portion of 20% for those in scientific libraries.

Public libraries

Referring to the public libraries a system has been worked out which enables LVG to register individual loans in a representative quantity. The fees are distributed in the form of royalties for the lending of literary works in the strict sense of the word, with LVG statistics on frequency of lending acts forming the basis of all calculations.
Basically, 70% of the sum per loan is distributed to the author and 30% to the publisher. In cases of translations, 50% of the share payable to the author of the work will accrue to the translator.

Scientific libraries

Referring to the scientific libraries the sum is divided by share and share alike for both authors and publishers. Following the system of VG Wort authors of scientific publications report to LVG yearly their books, contributions to books and articles published in the past year and get their fees for lending of these “new publications”. Publishers of scientific literature get their fees according to the entries of their books in the VLB (German Books in Print).