FAQs for Creator Affiliates

For FAQs About Payback^TM, please click here.

Who can become an affiliate of Access Copyright?
If you are a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident outside the province of Quebec, you are eligible to register for affiliation with Access Copyright provided that you meet the following requirements:

At least one of your works has already been published in a print format such as a book, magazine, newspaper or scholarly journal

You have at least one work to which you retain reprographic rights

You are not already affiliated with any other reproduction rights organization (such as COPIBEC in Quebec)

You are a writer, illustrator or photographer.

How do I become an affiliate?
Please click here to learn how to become affiliated with Access Copyright.

Can I register online to become an affiliate?
Yes. The online registration tool is available on our website .

Can I fax or email my registration form to Access Copyright?
Yes. If you choose not to register online, a downloadable form is available on our website. Simply complete the form and email or fax it to our Affiliate Services department at 416-868-1621, or affiliates@accesscopyright.ca .

What does the “exclusive” grant of rights mean?
There is no grant of rights when simply registering. However, should you choose to grant rights to Access Copyright, the exclusive right referred to in the agreement is limited to collective licensing activities conducted by a collective society. You will still be able to personally grant rights for the use of your works, but you cannot affiliate with another reproduction rights organization, such as COPIBEC in Quebec.

I am a new affiliate but I haven’t signed a grant of rights. Why?
A grant of rights is not mandatory to become an affiliate of Access Copyright. However, once you have registered with Access Copyright you do have the option to grant us your rights. This means that you are granting Access Copyright an ‘exclusive licence’ to manage the reproduction rights in your works, including paper and digital copying.

Why would I grant rights to Access Copyright?
By granting Access Copyright these rights, you are giving Access Copyright the ability to protect and enforce the copyright in your works on your behalf and pursue enforcement matters in court.

By completing the grant of rights form, your affiliate status will automatically include the additional benefit of our legal and compliance services.

Why have you changed your registration process?
In an effort to get more royalties to more creators (writers, photographers & visual artists) across the country, Access Copyright has simplified the creator registration process to include fewer administrative requirements and an online registration tool.

I am a current affiliate. How do these changes affect me?
Your affiliate status will not be affected by these changes. You do not need to register again.

Is there a fee to become an affiliate?
Affiliation with Access Copyright is free. However, Access Copyright retains a percentage of royalties collected to cover our administrative costs. Only those benefiting from a distribution contribute to the cost of operations. Access Copyright's Board of Directors sets this administrative holdback fee each year.

Do I need to send in a new affiliation application each year?
Once you are an affiliate, you do not need to renew your affiliation every year. It will not expire unless you submit written instructions for us to cancel your affiliation. However, we do occasionally update our affiliation agreement to offer more services. In this case, you may be required to sign a new affiliation agreement. When this happens, we will notify our affiliates that a new affiliation agreement is available.

How many published works do I need to have to be an affiliate?
As long as you have at least one published work in print format and retain reprographic rights for that work, you may become an affiliate.

Should I let Access Copyright know when I publish new titles?
You are not required to send in regular updates to your works list. If Access Copyright receives a report that your works have been copied by our licensees, our staff will build records in our Rights Management System ( RMS ) for those works and will attach them to your affiliate profile to facilitate royalty payments. We may contact you from time to time to confirm that you are the creator of a work that has appeared in our reports. As a result, we ask that you please ensure that the contact information we have on file for you is kept up to date.

If I'm Canadian, but am published primarily in the U.S. and U.K., is it still worth my while to affiliate?
Yes. Through reciprocal agreements with other reproduction rights organizations, Access Copyright affiliates are represented in other countries around the world, including the U.S. and U.K. These agreements ensure representation of Canadian authors and Canadian publications in other territories and also allow us to represent foreign publications in Canada.

Can I become both a publisher and creator affiliate?
You can become both a publisher and a creator affiliate only if you are not a self-publisher. If you only publish your own material, you will be treated as a creator affiliate.

If I am a member of PWAC (or any other Access Copyright member organization), does that automatically make me an Access Copyright affiliate?
No, being a member of an Access Copyright member organization does not automatically make you an affiliate. Please click here to learn how to become affiliated with Access Copyright.