What's new
UK PLR OFFICE TO JOIN THE BRITISH LIBRARY
The UK government announced today that responsibility for administering PLR will transfer to the British Library from 1 October 2013. PLR staff will become employees of the British Library and will continue to administer PLR from their existing offices in Stockton-on-Tees. Therefore authors will not see any obvious change in the day-to-day running of PLR. The position of Registrar will disappear but the present Registrar will be retained for an agreed period to oversee the transfer of functions to the British Library.
First Hungarian PLR payments
The Hungarian Literary Authors Collecting Society (HLACS) was given responsibility by the Hungarian government in 2011 for the setting up and administration of a PLR system. Anna Menyhért and her team at HLACS have now received the long-awaited funding from the government which will enable them to make Hungary’s first-ever PLR payments shortly.
International PLR Conference dates confirmed
We can confirm that the next International PLR Conference will be held in Dublin on 26-27 September this year. There will also be a day of social activities on 28 September for delegates able to stay on after the conference. More detailed information about the conference venue and hotels will follow soon.
Court rules that PLR payments must be more than just `symbolic'
Following the European Court of Justice’s judgement in June 2011 (VEWA ruling) that the PLR remuneration paid to authors whose books are made available for use through public libraries must be adequate and not just ‘symbolic’, Reprobel, the RRO with responsibility for PLR in Belgium, has been successful in getting the Belgian government to change its PLR legislation to reflect this ECJ judgement. In future PLR will be calculated not on the basis of the number of library users, but taking account of the size of library book collections and the number of loans. The Belgian Royal Decree on PLR of April 2004 has been revoked and replaced by a Royal Decree of December 2012, with retroactive effect as from 2004. Government funding for PLR - currently Euro 1.6 million per annum - should double after 5 years.
Christmas Greetings
Best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to members of the international PLR community everywhere. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the next PLR conference which will be held in Dublin in September 2013. The provisional dates for the conference are 26th- 28th September, to be confirmed early next year.
Venue announced for 10th International PLR Conference
We are delighted to confirm that the 10th International PLR Conference will be held in Dublin in September 2013. It will be hosted by the Irish PLR office with support from ICLA. We hope to confirm the dates soon but it is likely to be in the last week of September.
Latest from New Zealand
The PLR system in New Zealand has been administered by the National Library since 2009. It is open to authors (but not publishers) and for 2012 funding stands at 2,000,000 New Zealand dollars (approx Euro 1.26 million). Payment is based on the number of copies of an author’s books held in 40 sample libraries across the country.
PLR Developments in Malta
The government of Malta has created a PLR budget and plans to proceed with the establishment of a PLR system by the end of 2012. Payment is to be based on how often an author’s books are lent out by public libraries. Work remains to be done on the detail of the proposed PLR scheme and in the absence of a collective management organisation the Maltese Language Academy is assisting authors with preparations for PLR.
‘SYNCHRONISED PLR’ IN THE UK AND IRELAND
Since 1 April the UK PLR office has been playing a bigger role in the support it provides to the Irish PLR system. Authors wishing to register for Irish PLR now apply through the UK’s PLR office. A recent development has been the introduction of ‘synchronised’ registration which enables authors to register their books simultaneously for the UK and Irish PLR systems - convenient for authors and easier to administer for the PLR team.
UK GOVERNMENT CONSULTS ON THE FUTURE MANAGEMENT OF PLR
In October 2010 the UK government announced its decision to abolish the present PLR organisation. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is now undertaking a 12-week public consultation on its proposals to transfer responsibility for managing the PLR scheme to another public body. The consultation paper (accessible on the DCMS website via the following link) seeks the views of authors and other interested parties on the government’s proposals.
http://www.culture.gov.uk/consultations/9019.aspx
Hungarian PLR funding received
The Hungarian Literary Authors’ Collecting Society (HLACS) was given the official go-ahead by the government in 2011 to administer the new Hungarian PLR system. HLACS has begun collecting book loans data from a sample of public and university libraries across the country. Once all of this has been received the first PLR payments will be calculated. Funding for 2012 is expected to be around 100 million HUF (333,000 Euros).
First PLR system for Malta
The Maltese government is in the process of setting up its first PLR system. Preparations are still at an early stage and much fact-finding about possible PLR models still to come. There will also need to be substantial research into the legal compliance issues within the context of the relevant European and national legislation, and consultation with authors and publishers. One issue is the lack of a collective management organisation for rightsholders in Malta.
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