May 1996

Freelances back collecting society

FREELANCES are ten-to-one in favour of a collecting-society-type arrangement for electronic and secondary rights. That's the main preliminary result from the London Freelance questionnaire.

Of the first 121 responses processed, 83 said they would use a collecting society. Eight said they would not, and 30 did not answer.

The NUJ has approached the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society to take a central part in setting up new-technology collecting arrangements for members. The ALCS Board meets in mid-May; report from its last meeting were that it was unofficially enthusiastic. See the Journalist for more details -- and see opposite for examples of how such schemes are working for journalists in the USA.

The Branch questionnaire has (fingers crossed!) suffered every possible hold-up, from an industrial dispute at Acorn House to computer program bugs to stomach bugs. Committee members hope to finish analysing the estimated 600 responses soon.