What is a copyright collective?

A copyright collective is a non-profit society, association or corporation that administers copyright rights on behalf of many authors, artists, and copyright holders, and carries on the business of collecting and distributing royalties or levies payable under the Copyright Act. It avoids the logistical problems that would arise if each copyright holder had to individually collect royalties from many sources, such as libraries or radio stations.

An example of such a collective is CANCOPY. It is the organization that acts on behalf of artists, writers and publishers to grant permission to copy. A licensing fee or royalty is collected and given back to the artist, writer or publisher.

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