Who is Reprobel?

Reprobel is the Belgian copyright collection society that collects and distributes the entitlements to remunerations for reprography and public lending.

In Belgium it is allowed to make copies from a book or newspaper within certain boundaries, provided that the authors and publishers receive a remuneration for it. Of course it would be impossible to post a policeman next to every photocopy machine. Instead, a levy on photocopy machines and photocopies was created.

You can also borrow books from the library, without having to buy them yourself. This also means loss of income for the authors and publishers. Therefore, the law also provides a collective remuneration for public lending. Reprobel collects both the remunerations for reprography and for public lending in Belgium.

After collection, Reprobel distributes the remunerations further among the copyright management companies for authors and publishers. Reprobel is made up of fifteen of these copyright management companies. There are copyright management companies for authors of literary works such as novels and poetry collections, but also of educational and scientific works. There are copyright management companies for photographers, screenwriters, illustrators and journalists. And on the publisher’s side, Reprobel is made up of the copyright management companies of the publishers of books, newspapers, magazines and sheet music.

The copyright management companies of the authors decide jointly on the distribution of the remunerations for their members in the Board of Authors. The publishers decide in the Board of Publishers. The two boards are legally entitled to half of the collected remunerations for reprography. Of the public lending right remunerations, 70 percent goes to the authors and 30 percent to the publishers.