Once again: all general communication from Reprobel to companies and public institutions is submitted in advance to its legal supervisor (see MYTH 1). Furthermore, our communications are never deliberately ‘aggressive’. If they do come across as such to some people, it is because copyright is an intellectual property right, just like trademark law or patent law, for example. If no legal exception to copyright applies, you may not perform any acts relevant to copyright (reproduction, communication to the public, on-demand availability, adaptation, etc.) without the prior and specific permission of the rights holder. Copyright is therefore a preventive prohibition right for users. We are not saying this; it is stated in the Belgian Copyright Act. Reprobel cannot therefore communicate about copyright without obligation, because this right entails clear legal obligations for users who actually perform copyright-relevant acts. And there may be more of these than you think, especially in the digital world (MYTHS 5 and 10).

Copyright is law. And law is rarely easy, especially for non-lawyers. In order to correctly outline the legal framework of copyright – and the legal obligations for users that go with it – Reprobel must occasionally refer to legal provisions. This may come across as bureaucratic, but unfortunately there is sometimes no other option. We try to avoid bureaucratic language as much as possible, but the law remains the law. We remain committed to clear and transparent communication via our social media; via Johnny, our bizili mascot; and via reference works on copyright.

Nog zo’n klassieker. We lezen op sociale media vaak commentaren dat het toch godgeklaagd zou zijn dat je elk jaar aangifte bij Reprobel moet doen, zelfs als je een nulaangifte in de uitzonderingsregeling voor reprografie (fotokopieën) wil doen. En toch heeft dat drie goede redenen. Ten eerste: het is gewoon de wet, want deze jaarlijkse aangifte is voor reprografie geregeld in het Wetboek van economisch recht (WER ~ art. XI.235-239 en XI.318/1-6) en in twee koninklijke besluiten van 5 maart 2017. Ten tweede: Reprobel kan onmogelijk zelf het jaarlijkse papieren reproductievolume van meer dan 200.000 Belgische ondernemingen en overheidsinstellingen in kaart brengen, omdat ze daar gewoon geen zicht op heeft. Ten derde: reproductiegedrag kan van jaar tot jaar variëren. Het is niet omdat je in referentiejaar X geen, weinig of net veel relevante reproductiehandelingen hebt gesteld, dat dit het volgende jaar ook zo is. En geef toe: een portaalaangifte bij Reprobel kost je jaarlijks nauwelijks een kwartiertje van je tijd. Een kleine moeite om wettelijk in orde te zijn.

This myth is also completely untrue. No less than two-thirds of Reprobel’s turnover (almost 30 million euros) comes from bizili by Reprobel, which is (mainly) a digital license for the private and public sectors. Reprobel is therefore keeping up with the times and the latest technological developments, because bizili aims to regulate the most common forms of digital reuse of copyright-protected texts and images and to facilitate working from home as much as possible. For Belgian and a worldwide selection of foreign source works. Through a user-friendly and central license with very broad license coverage. More than 90,000 Belgian companies and public institutions already benefit from bizili license coverage, and we have also concluded more than 65 sector agreements on bizili. With attractive license rates, tailored to your sector and workforce. Bizili by Reprobel clearly meets a real market need. Because copyright and the digital world are not a natural fit (MYTH 10).

As a licensed copyright management company, Reprobel is a private cooperative society owned by Belgian authors and publishers, not the Belgian state. Reprobel distributes all license fees collected—after deducting its limited management costs and legally required reserves and provisions—in full to the rights holders through its fifteen member management companies and, in some cases, through mandate agreements with Belgian or foreign partner companies. What you pay to Reprobel is therefore not a tax or levy, but reasonable compensation for rights holders for the large-scale reuse of their copyright-protected works or publications. Because everyone wants to be paid for their work, just like you.

This myth is also completely untrue. Reprobel’s management costs amount to just over half of the legal ceiling of 15% of its collections. You can read more about this in Reprobel’s annual report. This is how we ensure that the maximum amount of the license fees collected goes to the rights holders. 90% of these fees are paid out to Belgian authors and publishers, providing a significant boost to the Belgian creative sector (see MYTH 15).

Management companies such as Reprobel operate within a very strict regulatory framework (European Directive 2014/26 and Articles XI.246 – XI.288 WER), under the supervision of the Management Companies Control Unit at the Ministry of Economy and with far-reaching transparency obligations. This is logical, as we manage large sums of money on behalf of our rights holders. These rights holders (through their 15 collecting societies) own Reprobel, and we are also audited by an external auditor. All organic documents (articles of association, etc.), license fees, and Reprobel’s collection, pricing, and distribution rules are reviewed in advance by the Control Unit. This body also supervises, for example, the turnaround time and scope of our distributions, as well as our management costs. All information about Reprobel’s operations, collections, and distributions can be found in our annual report. In complete transparency.

We occasionally receive complaints that we are no longer available by phone via our customer service department. That’s right—we now only work with an online contact form (or direct email contact for larger companies or institutions that have a bizili group agreement with us). There is a good reason for this too. With a small team, we serve more than 200,000 (!) companies and public institutions in Belgium. It would be impossible to answer everyone in person. However, we do try to answer your questions or complaints as quickly as possible. If you have not yet received a response from us, you can simply ignore any reminders. We promise you will receive a response.

Many smaller companies believe that a ‘zero declaration’ under the legal exemption scheme for reprography (photocopying) is all they need. However, such a zero declaration does not provide any digital license coverage through Reprobel. We can imagine that some companies of this type have not actually made any photocopies of protected works in a specific reference year. However, printing protected texts and images from the internet and, in particular, digital reproduction (digital copying, cutting and pasting, digital transfer, digital archiving, processing in PowerPoint presentations, etc.) and internal and external digital distribution thereof are a different matter legally. After all, there is no general legal exception for quotations for companies and (most) public institutions. For such actions involving copyright-protected texts and images, you are legally required to obtain the prior and specific consent of the rights holders (Art. XI.165, § 1, 1° and 4° Code of Economic Law), and therefore a comprehensive license that is also interpreted restrictively (strictly). However, trying to arrange these types of licenses individually for yourself and all your employees on the internet can be a truly Herculean task. That is precisely why we developed bizili by Reprobel. The difference between bizili (digital + paper) and a much more limited reprography declaration (photocopies only) is clearly explained here.

Perhaps the most persistent myth of all: it’s freely available on the internet, so why should I pay Reprobel? But that’s not how copyright works. Many copyright-protected texts and images that are freely available on the internet are financed by advertising. If you then digitally copy or share the work, the rights holder loses income. Moreover, “free” on the internet only means that access to the work is free, but not its reuse under copyright law – different and binding rules apply to that. Compare it to a car parked in front of your door with its doors open and the engine running. Just because it is parked there unattended does not mean that you are allowed to take it for a drive, even if you put it back afterwards. Also keep in mind that anything you distribute digitally without permission can be shared around the world with just a few clicks of the mouse. The damage to the rights holder can therefore be considerable, even if you have no malicious or commercial intentions. But remember: without a valid licence, you are not allowed to perform any digital copyright-related actions, not even for “freely” available source works (unless the online licence terms expressly and specifically allow you to do so).

This is also a persistent misunderstanding. As a licensed copyright management company, Reprobel has a number of legal means of verification at its disposal. For reprography (photocopies), for example, it can request information from your leasing company or supplier of reproduction equipment. For digital reuse of copyright-protected texts and images in its extensive national and international repertoire, it can send you a detailed questionnaire, which you must answer correctly. In addition, Reprobel has sworn agents who can make on-site observations in your organisation to prove the contrary and draw up official reports. Late or clearly incorrect declarations (reprography) or copyright infringements (digital) are subject to penalties that can amount to a multiple of the normal licence fee. In addition, the aggrieved individual rights holder can also take direct action against you in the event of established or suspected copyright infringement. Reprobel’s communication is therefore certainly not without obligation, because copyright is a preventive prohibition right for the user (MYTH 2).

This is also a myth. Under the legal exemption scheme for reprography (photocopying), Reprobel acts as a single collection agency, appointed by Royal Decree, representing all beneficiary rights holders, including foreign ones. Under its digital licence bizili by Reprobel, Reprobel has concluded more than 40 international representation agreements with foreign partner organisations, enabling us to offer a global repertoire for acts of use that fall under the broad bizili licence coverage on Belgian territory.

The (digital and paper) licence coverage of bizili by Reprobel is particularly extensive, and even one of the most extensive in the EU. We are proud of that. Nevertheless, bizili does not cover a number of uses. This is the case, for example, for those acts for which the rights holders themselves or their management company offer their own licence, such as for (photo) databases, e-books or the collective licences of Semu for sheet music or of License2publish (NL) and Copiepresse (FR) for the structural reuse of press publications. Furthermore, bizili by Reprobel only regulates the copyright reuse of texts and images of all kinds. Music rights must be arranged separately, which in most cases can be done via the unique Unisono portal. Rights to audiovisual content are best arranged directly with the producer, although you can also contact their management company for more information. When using copyright-protected content on online platforms or social media, it is also advisable to thoroughly check the platform’s terms of use; for content from TV or radio broadcasters, it is best to contact the broadcaster.

Every day, our Belgian authors and the publishers who invest in them produce fiction and non-fiction, children’s books, comics, school textbooks, scientific publications, press articles, photographs, cartoons and illustrations of a particularly high standard. Their works are a real driver for innovation, scientific research and education, and an important bulwark against fake news. However, in a small, multilingual country, our creative and information sector remains a vulnerable ecosystem, especially in today’s digital world. Not every author is a bestseller, and many authors can barely make a living from their creations. Moreover, many creative makers are small self-employed persons and many publishers are SMEs. Your annual contribution to Reprobel therefore really makes a difference financially, because many small contributions add up to a large one. Since its inception, Reprobel has already injected half a billion euros (!) into the Belgian creative and information sector – more than 60,000 Belgian authors in all genres and more than 400 Belgian publishers, large and small. What’s more, your payment to Reprobel is tax-deductible as a professional expense, as it is a licence fee.