Reprobel is a cooperative management company licensed by the government. It offers a licence for the digital reuse of copyrighted texts and images in the private and public sectors (bizili by Reprobel). In these sectors, it also collects the legal reprography remuneration for photocopies of such works. In addition, as a unique one-stop shop Reprobel collects legal remunerations in the domains of education, research and public lending. Through its 15 member management companies and more than 40 international agreements, it ensures that rights holders receive a fair remuneration for the (re)use of their works.
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Frequently asked questions
What is copyright?
Copyright is an intellectual property right, like trademark or patent law. For the rights holder, it is a temporary monopoly on exploitation; for the user, a temporary restriction. Copyright protects any creation of the human mind that is expressed in a tangible form and bears the personal stamp of the author. In other words: any creation that results from the author’s free creative or intellectual choices and is not trivial.
Any human creation that meets the conditions for copyright protection can thus be protected, including not only artistic works like literature, comics, art photography, paintings, or sculptures, but also informative works such as professional literature, educational or scientific works, news articles, and cartoons. Copyright protection is form-free and lasts until seventy years after the death of the last surviving author.
Is the payment to Reprobel a tax or levy?
All forms of copyright remuneration are private-law compensations. They are therefore never a tax or levy. They ensure that rights holders (in Reprobel’s case usually authors and publishers) receive fair payment for the reuse of their copyrighted works, even in today’s digital environment. What Reprobel collects is distributed in full to the rights holders (after deduction of minimal operational costs), and does not go to the state.
Can Reprobel handle all copyright matters for me?
Reprobel can centrally manage a wide range of copyright matters for your organization, but not all. For both the private and public sectors, Reprobel can handle copyrights related to paper reproductions and the most common forms of digital reuse of copyrighted texts and still images—except where rights holders (individually or via their own collecting society) already offer separate licenses. (Examples: sheet music licenses via Semu, press content via License2publish or Copiepresse, or individual licenses for databases, photo libraries, or e-books.)
Reprobel does not offer licenses for music used by or in your organization—you should go to www.unisono.be for that. Copyrights for audiovisual works must also be arranged separately, usually via the producer. However, for statutory remunerations in the sectors of recognized education, scientific research, and public lending, Reprobel also represents the rights holders of sound recordings and audiovisual works.