Response to articles in the Australian from CAL's Board

Following concern over an article published in The Australian on Thursday 18 February 2010 (Copyright staff get more than they give to authors and artists, Luke Slattery), CAL Board Directors James Bradley, Libby Gleeson AM and Malcolm Knox sent the following statement to the editor of The Australian:

“Luke Slattery’s article, ‘Copyright staff get more than they give to authors and artists’ (The Australian, 18 February 2010) is based on a misunderstanding of CAL’s business.
 
The article suggests only $9.1 million of the $114 million CAL collected in 2008-9 was paid to Australian authors and artists. This is manifestly incorrect. While it is true that only $9.1 million was paid directly to authors and artists, a further $75.9 million was paid to Australian publishers and then redistributed by publisher members to authors and artists under private contractual arrangements.  Indeed of the $114 million collected in 2008-9, 86% was paid to rightsholders.
 
As former ASA Executive Director Jeremy Fisher points out in the article, this system of direct and indirect payment is relatively opaque, and has the potential to lead to disputes between authors and publishers. That is why CAL is in the process of implementing a new distribution system, CALdirect, under which authors and publishers will be paid directly on the terms agreed privately between them. This system, which is specifically designed to allow authors and publishers the flexibility to implement individual agreements on a title-by-title basis, is a world first and places CAL at forefront of collecting agencies worldwide.
 
The article also suggests that CAL’s expenditure on salaries is disproportionately high. In fact CAL’s total operations budget in 2008-9 was $15.6 million, or 13.7% of total revenue. This marked a decrease in both real and percentage terms on the 2007-8 figure of $17.4 million, itself a decrease on the 2006-7 figure of $18.1 million, results achieved in the context of significant investment in developing CALdirect.
 
In addition to the amounts distributed to authors and publishers, CAL also invests more than $1 million annually in the broader cultural community through its Cultural Fund. The vast bulk of this money flows to projects specifically designed promote the recognition and dissemination of Australian writing and to develop new markets in Australia and overseas.”

To read a response to the articles from CAL's CEO Jim Alexander, click here.