Picture this - £000s for you?

LAST YEAR more than 2500 photographers, illustrators and other visual creators shared nearly £500,000 from DACS Payback 2002. This year, DACS has even more to share out in Payback 2003 - almost £1 million!

You can claim if your work has been reproduced in British books or magazines published at any time up to the end of 2001. And if your work was included in a British TV broadcast in 2001, you should claim for this too. Don't forget that if you claimed last year, you can claim again for all your works which have been reproduced in books and magazines.

DACS - the Design and Artists Copyright Society - negotiates a share of copyright licensing income for visual creators and pays it to any artist or visual creator with a valid claim. To get your claim form call DACS on 020 7336 8811 or email payback@dacs.org.uk or download a copy from our website - go to the Payback page at www.dacs.org.uk. The closing date for claims is 31 July 2003.

Making a claim could bring you an unexpected windfall. Last year some claims ran to thousands of pounds. This year, there are new funds available. So what are you waiting for? Claim it!

© John Robinson
DACS

• Collecting some of this money involves the NUJ declaring that yes, members do (in general) license their images for certain "secondary uses". If you want to opt out of this licence, write to the Freelance Office saying so.
• ALCS, the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society, does a similar job for writers. You can register with ALCS at any time, and keep them updated about the works in which you've kept copyright: visit www.alcs.co.uk