Membership means that ProLitteris manages certain rights and that you receive royalties for the use of your works.
Specifically, membership offers you:
The management agreement is free of charge and forms the basis for ProLitteris to collect and pay out royalties for you. You define yourself in the ProLitteris portal which rights are included. You can adapt your choice annually.
Your works are protected independently of membership at ProLitteris. Copyright protection arises automatically upon creation.
Become a member as early as possible so that you do not miss out on any royalties and can later, if necessary, receive social benefits.
You can become a member of ProLitteris if you are an author, a publishing house or an heir and have created published works that are used by third parties.
A management agreement is useful for you if you are regularly active in creative or journalistic work, for example:
As a member, you receive royalties from uses that are compensated by law as well as from further uses that you can hardly organize yourself.
Membership is free of charge. The terms of the management agreement and the articles of association apply.
ProLitteris manages published works in the areas of text and image, as defined in the terms of management.
These include:
What is decisive is whether participation in a distribution is possible. The distributions of statutory royalties concern printed works (Print distribution for books and newspapers/magazines), internet (Online distribution, especially for journalistic and scientific online services), radio and television (Broadcast distribution) and exhibited works (Expo distribution from 2027).
For music, film and stage, other collecting societies are usually responsible.
When you register and in the context of distributions, you confirm that your works are protected by copyright and that you hold the corresponding rights. ProLitteris verifies this where necessary.
You can apply for a management agreement if you meet certain prerequisites regarding yourself, your works, and your rights.
The conditions for all rights holders are:
Additional conditions for publishing houses:
The executive management of ProLitteris reviews your application on the basis of the articles of association and the terms of management and decides on the conclusion of the management agreement.
No, you cannot conclude a management agreement retroactively. The agreement applies from the time it is concluded and for the future.
However, it covers all rights and works that belong to you—both existing and future ones. Your previous works are therefore included in the management, even if the agreement is only concluded at a later date.
It is advisable to conclude the management agreement as early as possible, as soon as you are working professionally. This way you ensure that your rights are recorded from the outset.
If you additionally become a member of the cooperative, this may later also be relevant for possible social benefits.
A management agreement is not necessary for your works to be protected. Protection arises automatically as soon as you create a work. A management agreement with ProLitteris serves to obtain royalties for the use of your works.
Authors do not have to register their works or conclude a contract. This distinguishes copyright from patents, trademarks, and designs.
ProLitteris recommends accompanying the publication of works with information on authorship and rights. In addition, ProLitteris offers a digital deposit that can make it easier to provide evidence. However, this is not a requirement, neither towards ProLitteris nor towards third parties who might one day contest the copyrights.
Membership has no disadvantages. ProLitteris manages statutory rights that are independent of the agreements between different rights holders.
Only in a small part of Sector Audio do agreements between authors and publishing houses play a role. For readings and film adaptations of literature offered by broadcasting organizations, it depends on the individual publishing agreement whether the author or the publishing house is responsible.
You can adjust all rights annually in the ProLitteris portal.
A management agreement with ProLitteris therefore has no legal or practical disadvantages for you. You retain control over your rights.
Open the membership portal and click on "Show agreement". Under "Print distribution" you will find the menu item "Settlement statements".
In the main distribution, you receive royalties independently of your agreements with other persons. Eligible are authors, publishing houses, and heirs of authors.
The reason is the mandatory collective management. Royalties are calculated independently and you are entitled to them by law.
The situation is different with voluntary collective management. At ProLitteris, this affects the sectors Audio and Art. Here, ProLitteris can only manage the rights that actually lie with you. If rights have already been transferred to a publishing house, a museum, or another person before they were transferred to ProLitteris in the management agreement, ProLitteris cannot license any uses.
This is how you avoid conflicts:
You can adjust the rights in the ProLitteris portal until 30.09. and the changes take effect on 01.01. of the following year.
In the event of death, copyright passes to the persons entitled to inherit. Who receives the rights is determined by inheritance law.
If several persons inherit, they form a community of heirs. This community appoints a joint representation that takes over contact with ProLitteris. The basis for this is a certificate of inheritance.
During their lifetime, the management agreement always remains tied to the author. Other persons or institutions cannot conclude the agreement — even if they have received rights. Only after death can the persons entitled to inherit take over the management agreement or conclude a new one and continue to manage the rights.
A foundation cannot become a member during the author’s lifetime. However, authors can authorize a person to manage their account and handle administration in dealings with ProLitteris.
Membership means that ProLitteris manages certain rights and that you receive royalties for the use of your works.
Specifically, membership offers you:
The management agreement is free of charge and forms the basis for ProLitteris to collect and pay out royalties for you. You define yourself in the ProLitteris portal which rights are included. You can adapt your choice annually.
Your works are protected independently of membership at ProLitteris. Copyright protection arises automatically upon creation.
Become a member as early as possible so that you do not miss out on any royalties and can later, if necessary, receive social benefits.
You can become a member of ProLitteris if you are an author, a publishing house or an heir and have created published works that are used by third parties.
A management agreement is useful for you if you are regularly active in creative or journalistic work, for example:
As a member, you receive royalties from uses that are compensated by law as well as from further uses that you can hardly organize yourself.
Membership is free of charge. The terms of the management agreement and the articles of association apply.
ProLitteris manages published works in the areas of text and image, as defined in the terms of management.
These include:
What is decisive is whether participation in a distribution is possible. The distributions of statutory royalties concern printed works (Print distribution for books and newspapers/magazines), internet (Online distribution, especially for journalistic and scientific online services), radio and television (Broadcast distribution) and exhibited works (Expo distribution from 2027).
For music, film and stage, other collecting societies are usually responsible.
When you register and in the context of distributions, you confirm that your works are protected by copyright and that you hold the corresponding rights. ProLitteris verifies this where necessary.
You can apply for a management agreement if you meet certain prerequisites regarding yourself, your works, and your rights.
The conditions for all rights holders are:
Additional conditions for publishing houses:
The executive management of ProLitteris reviews your application on the basis of the articles of association and the terms of management and decides on the conclusion of the management agreement.
No, you cannot conclude a management agreement retroactively. The agreement applies from the time it is concluded and for the future.
However, it covers all rights and works that belong to you—both existing and future ones. Your previous works are therefore included in the management, even if the agreement is only concluded at a later date.
It is advisable to conclude the management agreement as early as possible, as soon as you are working professionally. This way you ensure that your rights are recorded from the outset.
If you additionally become a member of the cooperative, this may later also be relevant for possible social benefits.
A management agreement is not necessary for your works to be protected. Protection arises automatically as soon as you create a work. A management agreement with ProLitteris serves to obtain royalties for the use of your works.
Authors do not have to register their works or conclude a contract. This distinguishes copyright from patents, trademarks, and designs.
ProLitteris recommends accompanying the publication of works with information on authorship and rights. In addition, ProLitteris offers a digital deposit that can make it easier to provide evidence. However, this is not a requirement, neither towards ProLitteris nor towards third parties who might one day contest the copyrights.
Membership has no disadvantages. ProLitteris manages statutory rights that are independent of the agreements between different rights holders.
Only in a small part of Sector Audio do agreements between authors and publishing houses play a role. For readings and film adaptations of literature offered by broadcasting organizations, it depends on the individual publishing agreement whether the author or the publishing house is responsible.
You can adjust all rights annually in the ProLitteris portal.
A management agreement with ProLitteris therefore has no legal or practical disadvantages for you. You retain control over your rights.
In the main distribution, you receive royalties independently of your agreements with other persons. Eligible are authors, publishing houses, and heirs of authors.
The reason is the mandatory collective management. Royalties are calculated independently and you are entitled to them by law.
The situation is different with voluntary collective management. At ProLitteris, this affects the sectors Audio and Art. Here, ProLitteris can only manage the rights that actually lie with you. If rights have already been transferred to a publishing house, a museum, or another person before they were transferred to ProLitteris in the management agreement, ProLitteris cannot license any uses.
This is how you avoid conflicts:
You can adjust the rights in the ProLitteris portal until 30.09. and the changes take effect on 01.01. of the following year.
In the event of death, copyright passes to the persons entitled to inherit. Who receives the rights is determined by inheritance law.
If several persons inherit, they form a community of heirs. This community appoints a joint representation that takes over contact with ProLitteris. The basis for this is a certificate of inheritance.
During their lifetime, the management agreement always remains tied to the author. Other persons or institutions cannot conclude the agreement — even if they have received rights. Only after death can the persons entitled to inherit take over the management agreement or conclude a new one and continue to manage the rights.
A foundation cannot become a member during the author’s lifetime. However, authors can authorize a person to manage their account and handle administration in dealings with ProLitteris.
Membership in several collecting societies only makes sense if you work in different areas, for example as a visual artist and at the same time as a musician. For texts and images, membership with ProLitteris is sufficient.
For legal and administrative reasons, ProLitteris avoids simultaneous membership with another collecting society with the same activities. In the past, this led to additional effort and to a lack of clarity regarding royalties.
ProLitteris cooperates with foreign societies so that you receive royalties from abroad even without dual membership. In some cases, it is possible for rights holders of another collecting society to participate directly in the distributions of ProLitteris. For all other cases and rights holders, ProLitteris pays the other collecting society an annual quota defined by the supervisory board.
Extended collective licenses allow the use of many works at the same time — including works of rights holders who do not have a management agreement with ProLitteris.
ProLitteris may grant such licenses if the statutory requirements according to Art. 43a CopA are fulfilled.
To date, ProLitteris offers an extended collective license for the following uses:
The extended collective licenses enable uses in new areas without the need to revise the Copyright Act. ProLitteris supports this statutory instrument in the interest of rights holders and users.
If works are created with AI, then according to the general rule in copyright law they are protected and eligible for royalties only if an original, individual human creation is expressed.
What is decisive is not a specific AI share, but the personal creative contribution of one person or of several people working together. If AI is merely used as a tool and a human being substantially shapes the result, then in most cases there is a protected work. If, on the other hand, AI takes over the creation without any recognizable individual human shaping, then no work arises within the meaning of the Copyright Act and there is no copyright protection, and ProLitteris does not distribute any royalty for this product.
By declaring a work with ProLitteris, you as author or publishing house confirm:
In addition, you must ensure that a work does not infringe any third-party rights and that the use of artificial intelligence does not occur in a way that prevents a work from coming into being.
ProLitteris relies on the information and confirmation provided by rights holders and can carry out inspections at any time. ProLitteris monitors the development of technology and the use of AI and comments on it regularly.
For your works to be taken into account, two conditions must be met: your authorship and the nature of the work under copyright law.
Your work must be an individual human creation. Content without its own creative contribution is not admissible, such as purely AI-generated results or texts and images that have been taken over in full or for the most part from third-party sources.
ProLitteris can request evidence from you in order to verify your authorship and the quality as a work. In addition, random checks are carried out to ensure the accuracy and admissibility of the declarations.
ProLitteris is further developing MyCopyright step by step to provide you with comprehensive support in the use and protection of your works.
In a next development stage, ProLitteris is planning functions that directly support you in dealing with copyrights, for example:
Additionally, a quality label is planned. This confirms the authenticity of content, for example for media material or translations, based on the sealing and deposit.
For you, this means that MyCopyright is evolving from a pure deposit service into a comprehensive platform for proof, use and management of your works.
ProLitteris pays statutory royalties and most international royalties annually.
The distribution takes place every year in September and concerns royalties from the previous year. These come from mandatory collective management, which is governed by the Common Tariffs (CT 1 to 14), as well as from similar management abroad.
To participate in the main distribution, you need a management agreement with ProLitteris.
You can participate in the main distribution if you are a rights holder and have a management agreement with ProLitteris.
The following are eligible to participate:
Other rights holders, for example agencies, foundations or producers, cannot participate. The reason is that ProLitteris accesses standardized data that can be identified on a published copy of a work. In practice, this makes it possible above all to clearly identify authors and publishing houses.
In certain areas, the systems of ProLitteris allow members of foreign collecting societies or of SSA to receive royalties directly from ProLitteris as well. In these cases, the distribution is handled via the other collecting society.
The deadline for declarations runs until 31 January for:
For works on the internet, the procedure is different. In this case, the publishing house declares the authors and texts by 31 March, provided it has correctly integrated the statistical files from ProLitteris on the website. After that, authors can link themselves to these declarations until 31 May.
ProLitteris recommends declaring works on an ongoing basis and not only towards the end of the deadline.
It is important that you declare contributions in works completely and correctly. Suspicious declarations are checked. ProLitteris must reject incorrect declarations.
In the Broadcast distribution, you must declare all broadcast minutes and image transmissions in full, including repeats.
Missing declarations always result in royalties being forfeited. ProLitteris cannot pay out these royalties later or as a gesture of goodwill. This also applies if the error does not lie with the person who missed the royalty, but for example with the publishing house in the Online distribution.
Your royalty is not assigned to a specific copy or use of a particular work. You receive a share of the royalties that ProLitteris collects for the legally permitted reproduction of copyright-protected text and visual works.
For the Print/Reprography distribution, the income is first allocated to various categories based on user declarations and surveys. The amounts are then distributed to the entitled rights holders in accordance with the distribution rules. Among other things, the works you have declared are taken into account.
Your payment therefore does not mean that a particular work of yours has been demonstrably copied. Rather, based on your declared works, you receive a share of the corresponding royalties.
The Print distribution particularly concerns printed works such as books, newspapers and magazines. Digital publications are taken into account via the separate Online distribution.
Royalties from abroad can also flow into your payment. ProLitteris receives these through its cooperation with foreign collecting societies and distributes them in accordance with the applicable rules.
The royalties are divided differently between authors and publishing houses, depending on the distribution.
In the Print distribution, authors and publishing houses each receive their own royalties. The calculation is based on fixed keys, depending on the work category and the role of a specific person, e.g. as author or translator.
In the Online distribution, the royalty per work is divided in half between the authors (one or several people) and the publishing house. A precondition is that the publishing house declares the work and uses statistical files. Without a publishing house, there is no royalty.
In the Broadcast distribution, the royalties for authors and publishing houses are calculated separately. If several rights holders are involved, each person can receive a royalty for their transmission minutes or images. If several people hold rights in an entire program, the transmission minutes are divided per capita or on the basis of a measurement.
If works are created with AI, then according to the general rule in copyright law they are protected and eligible for royalties only if an original, individual human creation is expressed.
What is decisive is not a specific AI share, but the personal creative contribution of one person or of several people working together. If AI is merely used as a tool and a human being substantially shapes the result, then in most cases there is a protected work. If, on the other hand, AI takes over the creation without any recognizable individual human shaping, then no work arises within the meaning of the Copyright Act and there is no copyright protection, and ProLitteris does not distribute any royalty for this product.
By declaring a work with ProLitteris, you as author or publishing house confirm:
In addition, you must ensure that a work does not infringe any third-party rights and that the use of artificial intelligence does not occur in a way that prevents a work from coming into being.
ProLitteris relies on the information and confirmation provided by rights holders and can carry out inspections at any time. ProLitteris monitors the development of technology and the use of AI and comments on it regularly.
The main distribution at ProLitteris includes several areas: Print, Online, Broadcast, and from 2027 Expo. Which of these is relevant for you depends on how your works are used.
The distributions at a glance:
All areas together form the main distribution. If you hold rights in texts or images and have a management agreement, you can participate in one or more of these distributions.
For authors, translators and publishing houses of books, the Print distribution is central.
If readings take place on radio or television or if filmed literature is broadcast, the Broadcast distribution is an option.
Copy-protected e-books cannot take part in the Online distribution, and files without copy protection often fail to reach the necessary accesses per year.
In voluntary collective management, the Sector Audio is added. Instruct ProLitteris to manage your rights vis-à-vis SRG and the other broadcasting organizations.
For authors in the fields of journalism and science, Online distribution is the main focus. The operator of the website must be a publishing house with a membership at ProLitteris, implement statistical files, and declare the texts as well as the authors.
Works in printed newspapers and magazines can receive an additional royalty in the Print distribution.
There is no area of voluntary collective management in journalism.
Your royalty is not assigned to a specific copy or use of a particular work. You receive a share of the royalties that ProLitteris collects for the legally permitted reproduction of copyright-protected text and visual works.
For the Print/Reprography distribution, the income is first allocated to various categories based on user declarations and surveys. The amounts are then distributed to the entitled rights holders in accordance with the distribution rules. Among other things, the works you have declared are taken into account.
Your payment therefore does not mean that a particular work of yours has been demonstrably copied. Rather, based on your declared works, you receive a share of the corresponding royalties.
The Print distribution particularly concerns printed works such as books, newspapers and magazines. Digital publications are taken into account via the separate Online distribution.
Royalties from abroad can also flow into your payment. ProLitteris receives these through its cooperation with foreign collecting societies and distributes them in accordance with the applicable rules.
The Print distribution is the oldest part of the main distribution of ProLitteris and concerns printed works.
Here you receive royalties for works that have appeared in printed form, for example in books, newspapers, or magazines. The royalties originate mainly from copying levies.
To ensure that your works are taken into account, you must submit a declaration for them with complete and correct information by 31 January of the distribution year at the latest.
For digital publications, the Online distribution is responsible.
The Print distribution covers printed texts and images that have appeared in books, newspapers, or magazines.
For your works to be taken into account, they must be published and available on the market or in a sufficient number of libraries. In addition, you must declare the works correctly by 31 January of the following year at the latest.
A work is taken into account in the Print distribution if it has sufficient circulation.
This requirement is fulfilled if one of the following conditions applies:
As proof, for example, a library receipt, a link, or a screenshot from a catalog such as Swisscovery is sufficient. Please send this to us by email.
The possibility to borrow must refer to the printed version. Online availability alone is not sufficient.
In the Print distribution, you receive royalties over several years, depending on the type of your work.
The royalty period per category in the Print distribution is governed by the distribution rules. ProLitteris is shortening the number of years in several revisions of the distribution rules with the following goal:
Currently, longer royalty periods still apply. The information in the portal is authoritative.
If several rights holders are involved in a work, the royalties are calculated separately for each person.
As a member of SSA, you can take part in Print distribution without concluding a management agreement with ProLitteris.
You can declare your contributions in printed books, newspapers or magazines directly to ProLitteris. For this, you need access to the portal and to Print distribution.
An additional membership with ProLitteris is possible, but not required.
Important: If you are affiliated with both SSA and ProLitteris, you must not receive a double royalty for the same work and the same use.
If a book is published in several editions, for example as a hardcover, paperback, or special edition, you only declare the first edition.
You can only declare another edition once the first edition is no longer eligible for a royalty.
This avoids the same work being included multiple times in the calculation of the Print royalty.
You can declare a new edition if it has been revised or expanded and has a new ISBN.
In this case, delete the older edition from your list of works and declare the new edition.
Unchanged reprints or new editions without any content revision are not taken into account additionally.
As an author, you only declare the part of the work that you have personally written.
The decisive factor is the number of pages or characters of your own contribution. You must not include contributions by other authors in your declaration.
As an editor, you can declare a work if it contains contributions from more than three authors.
An exception applies to scholarly annotated text editions. In that case, this requirement is not necessary.
For an editorship, the system assumes there is one editor.
Your royalty is not assigned to a specific copy or use of a particular work. You receive a share of the royalties that ProLitteris collects for the legally permitted reproduction of copyright-protected text and visual works.
For the Print/Reprography distribution, the income is first allocated to various categories based on user declarations and surveys. The amounts are then distributed to the entitled rights holders in accordance with the distribution rules. Among other things, the works you have declared are taken into account.
Your payment therefore does not mean that a particular work of yours has been demonstrably copied. Rather, based on your declared works, you receive a share of the corresponding royalties.
The Print distribution particularly concerns printed works such as books, newspapers and magazines. Digital publications are taken into account via the separate Online distribution.
Royalties from abroad can also flow into your payment. ProLitteris receives these through its cooperation with foreign collecting societies and distributes them in accordance with the applicable rules.
The Online distribution is part of the main distribution and concerns royalties for works on the internet.
You receive royalties here for texts and images that have been published online. The income comes mainly from statutory royalties in the digital field as well as from abroad.
The role of the publishing house, that is, the operator of the website, is decisive. For your work to be taken into account, the publishing house must:
As an author, you can only receive your royalty if the publishing house meets these requirements. It is therefore worthwhile to speak to your publishing house about taking part in the Online distribution.
The Print distribution, on the other hand, is responsible for printed works.
The Online distribution covers texts that are published on the internet and meet certain minimum requirements.
For your work to be taken into account, it must:
The declaration is submitted by the publishing house by 31.03. Authors should check these declarations by 31.05. and, if necessary, complete them with their MemberID.
If all requirements are met, the royalty is divided equally between you and the publishing house.
Images are also taken into account in the Online distribution.
The prerequisite is that your texts and images are published on a website that uses ProLitteris statistical files and that the minimum requirements are met, in particular regarding text length and number of accesses.
The publishing house must declare that one image or several images were published with a text — and it must indicate the image author or authors, including their MemberID.
In addition, you as a rights holder must have a management agreement with ProLitteris.
To receive royalties from the Online distribution, the involvement of your publishing house is crucial.
First check whether your publishing house already participates in the Online distribution. If not, you can draw your publishing house’s attention to it and encourage participation – especially if the website achieves a sufficient number of visits.
It is also important that the publishing house records and assigns your works correctly. Your ProLitteris MemberID helps with this. You receive it when you conclude a management agreement.
Texts in social media are not eligible for a royalty in the Online distribution.
The reason is that the operators of these platforms do not participate in the Online distribution. They do not have a management agreement with ProLitteris as a publishing house and do not use statistical files. In addition, it is not always possible to identify the authors. Without these requirements, ProLitteris cannot calculate and pay out royalties.
For a website to be taken into account, the operator must act as a publishing house, conclude a management agreement and meet the technical requirements.
Texts that are under a Creative Commons license can also earn a royalty in the Online distribution. Statutory licenses and statutory royalties take precedence over contractual legal transactions.
A general license that applies to everyone therefore does not prevent a royalty, as long as the other conditions of the Online distribution are met.
There are no statutory royalties for audio and video or podcasts that are made available on demand on the internet.
These formats are not part of the legally regulated uses on which the distributions of ProLitteris are based. Therefore, they are not taken into account in the Online distribution or in the other areas of the main distribution.
One reason is that statutory royalties mainly concern copies. However, audio and video content is predominantly streamed and only rarely copied. In addition, downloads are legally exempt from the obligation to pay royalties.
For legal, technical, and practical reasons, ProLitteris therefore pays royalties in mandatory collective management only for written texts and images, but not for audio or video files.
The situation is different in voluntary collective management. In the Sector Audio, royalties from broadcasting organizations for audio and video content are possible.
Your online works are declared correctly if you have a management agreement with ProLitteris and your publishing house has entered your member ID.
If your member ID is missing in a declaration, you can add it yourself:
After you add the missing data, the declaration is complete and disappears from the result list. You can then process further incomplete declarations.
Yes, amateur photos and snapshots are also protected by copyright.
Since 01.04.2020, the Copyright Act has protected both photographs with individual character and photographs without individual character. This includes, for example, everyday pictures, holiday photos, or spontaneous snapshots.
The protection covers in particular the right to be credited by name and protection against unauthorized adaptations and uses. This makes it easier to determine whether a photograph was used without consent.
For the management of rights by ProLitteris, it is also relevant that the photograph was published or used. Whether a royalty is due and in what amount depends on the specific use and the applicable tariff.
Even if an infringement has occurred, it is not always worthwhile to enforce rights in court. The chances of success and the expected costs should be carefully examined before initiating proceedings.
Your royalty is not assigned to a specific copy or use of a particular work. You receive a share of the royalties that ProLitteris collects for the legally permitted reproduction of copyright-protected text and visual works.
For the Print/Reprography distribution, the income is first allocated to various categories based on user declarations and surveys. The amounts are then distributed to the entitled rights holders in accordance with the distribution rules. Among other things, the works you have declared are taken into account.
Your payment therefore does not mean that a particular work of yours has been demonstrably copied. Rather, based on your declared works, you receive a share of the corresponding royalties.
The Print distribution particularly concerns printed works such as books, newspapers and magazines. Digital publications are taken into account via the separate Online distribution.
Royalties from abroad can also flow into your payment. ProLitteris receives these through its cooperation with foreign collecting societies and distributes them in accordance with the applicable rules.
The Broadcast distribution is part of the main distribution and concerns works that were broadcast on radio or television.
Here you receive royalties for texts and images that were used in radio or TV programs. The income comes mainly from statutory royalties, in particular for retransmission by telecommunication and cable network companies.
For your works to be taken into account, you must declare them with complete and correct information by 31 January of the distribution year at the latest. Make sure that you also declare repeats in full.
The Broadcast distribution covers spoken texts and images that are used in radio or television programs.
The following are taken into account:
For your works to earn a royalty, you must declare them by 31 January at the latest. You must also declare repeats separately so that they are taken into account.
The royalty is calculated per minute of broadcasting. Higher rates apply to SRG programs than to private broadcasters.
The rights of broadcasting organizations and their employees are not managed via ProLitteris. If you are in an employment relationship with a broadcasting organization, you cannot participate in the Broadcast distribution for these works.
Instead, the statutory royalties are handled as lump sums via the Interest Group for Radio and Television (IRF). ProLitteris pays a share of the revenue to the IRF, which distributes it to the broadcasting organizations. In this way, the royalties also reach the authors economically.
With the condition "no employment contract with a broadcasting organization", ProLitteris prevents double royalties from being paid for the same use.
ProLitteris ensures the exclusion of such works through notices and spot checks.
When you declare works, you are informed that contributions arising from an employment relationship with a broadcasting organization are not permitted. Providing incorrect information would constitute a breach of contract and be unlawful.
The royalty in the Broadcast distribution is based on a fixed calculation per broadcasting minute.
The basis is the per-minute royalty. It is currently CHF 20 and is multiplied by a program factor and a time factor:
This results in three typical royalties:
This takes into account that SRG programs generally have a higher reach.
An image or work of art is treated like one broadcasting minute and earns a royalty accordingly if it is broadcast for at least 5 seconds.
The amount of the per-minute royalty and of the program factors is continuously reviewed and may be adjusted.
Broadcast distribution takes place in a declaration and subsequent distribution procedure based on statutory royalties.
The amount of your royalty depends on three factors:
SRG programs are weighted more highly than other broadcasters. The time of broadcast also influences the royalty.
If several people are involved, the shares are divided according to transparent criteria, for example based on speaking time.
Important: Even after the declaration and an initial review, ProLitteris can carry out further checks and decide on the final consideration.
Yes, repeats can also earn a royalty in Broadcast distribution.
The following applies to the royalty:
You must declare each broadcast individually, including repeats and broadcasts in different programs. A broadcast can therefore earn multiple royalties if it is broadcast multiple times.
ProLitteris and its account managers cannot take over the declaration of all broadcasts for the rights holders. The form for declaring broadcast minutes or images is updated from time to time.
To find out whether your work has been broadcast, you have several options.
In the ProLitteris portal, you can search for broadcasts in the EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) if you know the program and the approximate broadcast time.
For SRG programs, you can research broadcasts via the applications, websites, and platforms of the broadcasting organizations.
Broadcasts in other programs can also be relevant, for example on 3Sat or on foreign broadcasters such as ARD, ZDF, or ORF. In these cases, you can use the respective websites or apps of the broadcasters.
Important for you: A comprehensive keyword search is currently only possible to a limited extent in the system. Therefore, it is worthwhile to search for broadcasts as specifically as possible by program and time.
The duration of a contribution is recorded in seconds and rounded to full minutes for the royalty.
This means:
You only receive a royalty from a minimum duration of 30 seconds.
The effective duration of your contribution within a program is always decisive. This rule applies both in Sector Audio and in the Broadcast distribution.
Your royalty is not assigned to a specific copy or use of a particular work. You receive a share of the royalties that ProLitteris collects for the legally permitted reproduction of copyright-protected text and visual works.
For the Print/Reprography distribution, the income is first allocated to various categories based on user declarations and surveys. The amounts are then distributed to the entitled rights holders in accordance with the distribution rules. Among other things, the works you have declared are taken into account.
Your payment therefore does not mean that a particular work of yours has been demonstrably copied. Rather, based on your declared works, you receive a share of the corresponding royalties.
The Print distribution particularly concerns printed works such as books, newspapers and magazines. Digital publications are taken into account via the separate Online distribution.
Royalties from abroad can also flow into your payment. ProLitteris receives these through its cooperation with foreign collecting societies and distributes them in accordance with the applicable rules.
ProLitteris also distributes royalties for uses abroad. For this purpose, ProLitteris cooperates with foreign collecting societies.
ProLitteris pays individual royalties in voluntary collective management, that is, in the sectors Audio and Art, to certain rights holders who have a management agreement with ProLitteris and whose works were used abroad.
ProLitteris generally distributes royalties from abroad, which correspond to the statutory royalties in Switzerland, in the main distribution. In exceptional cases, ProLitteris distributes these amounts individually to certain rights holders, provided that they are known and provided that distribution to individual persons can be carried out in an economically viable manner.
Royalties from abroad usually contain only the information that the foreign collecting society transmits.
These are often lump-sum and statistically calculated amounts that are not assigned to any specific use of a particular work.
ProLitteris reviews incoming payments for plausibility and records them. ProLitteris carries out detailed clarifications if there is a specific reason to do so.
Direct declarations are special declarations by rights holders with foreign collecting societies such as VG WORT, VG Bild-Kunst or Literar-Mechana, which in certain cases lead to direct royalties.
As a general rule, the quota paid by ProLitteris to these societies fully covers the claims of foreign rights holders.
Direct declarations are only used in exceptional cases:
Direct declarations concern exclusively rights holders who are affiliated with VG WORT, VG Bild-Kunst or Literar-Mechana.
The payment is made via the respective foreign collecting society.
Direct declarations generally do not bring any economic advantage. Whether they are useful in individual cases depends on the distribution rules of your collecting society. ProLitteris cannot verify these distributions.
An additional membership with ProLitteris should be avoided. To be able to settle accounts in a legally correct way and to limit the administrative effort, double memberships should be avoided.
A management agreement with ProLitteris requires that you have your domicile or nationality in Switzerland or in Liechtenstein; for publishing houses, the registered office or branch is decisive, and further conditions must be met.
Without this requirement, you cannot conclude a management agreement. It is therefore not advisable to exclude the territory of Switzerland in your existing agreement with a foreign collecting society such as VG WORT, VG Bild-Kunst, or Literar-Mechana.
You receive royalties from Switzerland through your own collecting society. It cooperates with ProLitteris on the basis of reciprocal agreements and forwards the corresponding amounts to you. ProLitteris pays royalties to foreign collecting societies in an annual procedure.
In addition to this rule, there is the special case of the so-called direct declarations, in two situations: authors who are affiliated with VG WORT, Literar-Mechana, or VG Bild-Kunst can submit direct declarations without a management agreement with ProLitteris:
a) declare works in newspapers/magazines in the Print distribution, and
b) in the Online distribution, link a publisher's work declarations with themselves as the author.
In these cases, the royalty is also calculated by ProLitteris in the Print and Online distributions, and the royalty flows via the foreign collecting society to the rights holder abroad.
Further direct declarations are not planned. ProLitteris limits direct declarations to a few exceptions that have been established for years and does not plan any expansion. Direct declarations concern exclusively rights holders who are affiliated with VG WORT, VG Bild-Kunst or Literar-Mechana
The reason lies in possible disadvantages for you and the system as a whole:
Today, ProLitteris prevents double royalties by deducting amounts from direct declarations from the annual quotas to foreign collecting societies.
As a rule, direct declarations do not bring any economic advantage. Whether they are useful in individual cases depends on the distribution rules of your collecting society. ProLitteris cannot verify these distributions.
ProLitteris distributes quotas because it collects statutory royalties not only for works from Switzerland, but also for works and rights of other collecting societies and of such from abroad.
Before ProLitteris carries out the main distribution, it calculates shares of other societies in the form of quotas.
Only members and rights holders of collecting societies are admitted to ProLitteris distributions for distributions in which ProLitteris enables direct declarations (VG WORT, VG Bild-Kunst and Literar-Mechana).
Otherwise, ProLitteris takes foreign rights holders into account by means of so-called quotas. ProLitteris calculates these under the responsibility of the supervisory board on the basis of the following criteria:
ProLitteris pays the amounts thus calculated annually to foreign collecting societies with a reciprocal agreement. These then distribute the royalties to their rights holders under their own responsibility.
ProLitteris calculates the quotas of foreign collecting societies according to a uniform key. In doing so, it particularly takes into account the size of the society, the language area, and the geographical proximity to Switzerland.
The calculation is carried out separately according to different types of use:
For a collecting society to receive a quota, there must be a contract with ProLitteris and cooperation in the corresponding sector of management.
ProLitteris strives for such cooperation with foreign collecting societies, but is not obliged to conclude corresponding contracts.
The distribution of quotas is regulated at several levels.
The distribution follows defined rules in all sectors, allows for economical administration and is reviewed regularly. ProLitteris ensures that authors receive an appropriate share, as provided for in the Copyright Act (art. 49 CopA).
Expo distribution is part of the main distribution of ProLitteris and concerns royalties for publicly exhibited visual works.
Here you receive royalties for artworks, photographs, illustrations, drawings, sculptures and other visual works or protected parts of works if they were publicly exhibited in Switzerland or Liechtenstein.
The royalties come from statutory royalties, in particular in connection with photographs, storage processes and other uses in schools, companies and in use in the personal circle.
For your works to be taken into account, you must declare the exhibition with complete and correct information by 31 January of the following year at the latest.
Several conditions must be met for your works to be taken into account in the Expo distribution.
You must be the author of a visual work or an heir and have a management agreement with ProLitteris.
The work must have been publicly exhibited by third parties in Switzerland or Liechtenstein in the year of use.
In addition, it must be legally and practically possible to take photographs.
Furthermore, the exhibition must have been publicly advertised or there must be public reporting about it.
Finally, you must submit the declaration on time and with complete information.
Expo distribution concerns visual works.
This includes in particular works of art, photographs, illustrations, drawings, sculptures as well as other visual works or protected parts of works.
The decisive factor is that the work is protected by copyright and has been exhibited publicly.
Non-fixed art performances are not covered, for example purely performative or virtual formats without a fixed public exhibition.
In the Expo distribution it is not sufficient if you present your works yourself. A prerequisite is a public exhibition by third parties.
In this way, ProLitteris follows a minimum requirement that also exists at VG Bild-Kunst.
This condition is intended in particular to prevent mere self-presentations without an actual exhibition character from earning a royalty.
The Expo distribution does not distinguish between temporary exhibition, permanent exhibition, collection exhibition or other forms of presentation.
The only decisive factor is that an eligible work is or will be exhibited publicly in the year of use.
Works in public space and art in architecture are also included.
The internal designation of the exhibition is therefore not decisive, but rather the actual public presentation of the work.
Public exhibitions in Switzerland or in Liechtenstein are admissible.
In particular, museums, galleries, off-spaces and other publicly accessible venues with art presentations are eligible.
Expo distribution is not linked to a specific type of institution. Other publicly accessible exhibition venues are therefore also not excluded from the outset.
The legal form or the sponsoring body of the venue is not decisive, but rather the public exhibition by third parties.
The royalty depends on the number of works and the duration of the exhibition.
The amount per author, exhibition venue and year of use is CHF 50, 100, 150, 200 or 250.
The level of the royalty also depends on the annual decision of the supervisory board.
The royalty is calculated per author, exhibition venue and year of use. Several exhibitions of the same person in different exhibition venues are eligible separately. Several presentations at the same exhibition venue in the same year of use are combined.
You declare your exhibition with the required information by no later than 31 January of the year following the year of use.
The important information in particular concerns the work, the authorship, the exhibition venue, the duration of the exhibition, and the public promotion.
The declaration is initially handled manually; integration into the portal is only planned at a later stage.
Even after the declaration, ProLitteris can carry out checks and decide on the final consideration.
The declaration does not yet give rise to a right to a specific royalty amount.
A right only arises in the distributions once ProLitteris has determined a specific royalty.
Therefore, even after the declaration, ProLitteris can still check whether the requirements are met and how the royalty turns out in the specific year.
Yes, royalties from ProLitteris generally have to be taxed.
If you receive the royalties as a private individual, they are in principle considered taxable income. ProLitteris does not withhold any withholding tax and does not declare the amounts in the tax return on your behalf.
You are therefore responsible yourself for declaring the royalties you have received in your tax return.
If you have questions about the tax treatment of your royalties, please contact the competent tax authority or a tax consultant.
The Art distribution is the payment of royalties for visual art and art photography in the art market. It is part of voluntary collective management.
The royalty in the Art distribution is based on the art tariff as well as on the tariffs of foreign collecting societies.
This means for you: you decide whether to mandate ProLitteris to manage your rights in this area. The amount of your royalty depends on how and where your work was used.
Rights holders. ProLitteris pays the amounts to you after deductions. These deductions concern:
ProLitteris distributes the royalties twice a year to the eligible rights holders.
Qualified uses are uses of works of art that particularly strongly interfere with the interests of rights holders.
These include in particular:
For you, this means: in such cases, the standard tariffs do not apply automatically. ProLitteris must ask the rights holder or their representative before a license is granted.
MyCopyright is a service that allows you to mark a file with a digital seal and a timestamp and deposit it with ProLitteris.
You create evidence that allows you to prove later that a specific file existed at a specific point in time.
The procedure comprises:
Proof is provided by a certificate that can be produced at any time. Together with your deposited file, this provides evidence that attests to the identity and temporal existence of an idea, a work, or a file.
The principle is similar to a sealed document that is deposited with a bank or a notary’s office. ProLitteris, together with a technical partner, is responsible for the digital sealing and safekeeping.
You can secure almost any electronic files, regardless of whether they are protected by copyright or not.
The MyCopyright service is operated and further developed by ProLitteris together with its partner Swiss Trust Layer.
Ideas, drafts, and data are created before a work is published.
At this early stage, the question often arises: "How can I later prove that my idea was created today, that it is authentic and unaltered, and that it was documented by me?"
With this service, ProLitteris is, for the first time, not only dealing with copyrights, but also with the question of how they can be proven.
The technology developed in the Canton of Schwyz by the company Swiss Trust Layer makes securing evidence possible. Files (texts, images, sketches, concepts, and other documents) can be deposited securely with ProLitteris.
When uploading, a cryptographic hash of the file is generated and provided with an encrypted timestamp. Swisscom stores the hash based on statutory requirements.
The client can produce a certificate at any time that proves the existence, time, origin, and integrity of the file.
The deposit for works and drafts functions as a digital safeguarding system for your files. You can assign a timestamp and encryption to works, drafts, or ideas and deposit them with ProLitteris.
The deposit is supplemented with specific declarations by the person who deposits the file.
The process is simple:
This creates reliable evidence. You can later prove that a specific file existed at a specific point in time and is attributed to you.
Use of the service is voluntary and independent of the management of your rights or the payment of royalties.
Important for you: MyCopyright serves to provide evidence under copyright law and supports you in legally protecting your creative work.
You can present the certificate together with the original file at any time. It serves as proof that your file existed at a certain point in time and is attributed to you. With MyCopyright, you improve the possibility of presenting evidence in copyright law.
Important: The service is not a requirement for copyright protection or for participating in the distributions of ProLitteris.
In addition to the MyCopyright service, the company Swiss Trust Layer, in coordination with ProLitteris, is developing additional services for the deposit and use of files.
These include developments for personal documents (e.g. diplomas for applications and employment, inheritance law documents, health documents), for professional and business documents (e.g. contract versions, construction documents, marks and trade dress for goods and services, price-sensitive stock exchange announcements) or for documents in regulated markets (e.g. pharmaceuticals, healthcare).
ProLitteris is further developing MyCopyright step by step to provide you with comprehensive support in the use and protection of your works.
In a next development stage, ProLitteris is planning functions that directly support you in dealing with copyrights, for example:
Additionally, a quality label is planned. This confirms the authenticity of content, for example for media material or translations, based on the sealing and deposit.
For you, this means that MyCopyright is evolving from a pure deposit service into a comprehensive platform for proof, use and management of your works.
MyCopyright is a service that allows you to mark a file with a digital seal and a timestamp and deposit it with ProLitteris.
You create evidence that allows you to prove later that a specific file existed at a specific point in time.
The procedure comprises:
Proof is provided by a certificate that can be produced at any time. Together with your deposited file, this provides evidence that attests to the identity and temporal existence of an idea, a work, or a file.
The principle is similar to a sealed document that is deposited with a bank or a notary’s office. ProLitteris, together with a technical partner, is responsible for the digital sealing and safekeeping.
You can secure almost any electronic files, regardless of whether they are protected by copyright or not.
The MyCopyright service is operated and further developed by ProLitteris together with its partner Swiss Trust Layer.
Ideas, drafts, and data are created before a work is published.
At this early stage, the question often arises: "How can I later prove that my idea was created today, that it is authentic and unaltered, and that it was documented by me?"
With this service, ProLitteris is, for the first time, not only dealing with copyrights, but also with the question of how they can be proven.
The technology developed in the Canton of Schwyz by the company Swiss Trust Layer makes securing evidence possible. Files (texts, images, sketches, concepts, and other documents) can be deposited securely with ProLitteris.
When uploading, a cryptographic hash of the file is generated and provided with an encrypted timestamp. Swisscom stores the hash based on statutory requirements.
The client can produce a certificate at any time that proves the existence, time, origin, and integrity of the file.
The deposit for works and drafts functions as a digital safeguarding system for your files. You can assign a timestamp and encryption to works, drafts, or ideas and deposit them with ProLitteris.
The deposit is supplemented with specific declarations by the person who deposits the file.
The process is simple:
This creates reliable evidence. You can later prove that a specific file existed at a specific point in time and is attributed to you.
Use of the service is voluntary and independent of the management of your rights or the payment of royalties.
Important for you: MyCopyright serves to provide evidence under copyright law and supports you in legally protecting your creative work.
You can present the certificate together with the original file at any time. It serves as proof that your file existed at a certain point in time and is attributed to you. With MyCopyright, you improve the possibility of presenting evidence in copyright law.
Important: The service is not a requirement for copyright protection or for participating in the distributions of ProLitteris.
In addition to the MyCopyright service, the company Swiss Trust Layer, in coordination with ProLitteris, is developing additional services for the deposit and use of files.
These include developments for personal documents (e.g. diplomas for applications and employment, inheritance law documents, health documents), for professional and business documents (e.g. contract versions, construction documents, marks and trade dress for goods and services, price-sensitive stock exchange announcements) or for documents in regulated markets (e.g. pharmaceuticals, healthcare).
ProLitteris is further developing MyCopyright step by step to provide you with comprehensive support in the use and protection of your works.
In a next development stage, ProLitteris is planning functions that directly support you in dealing with copyrights, for example:
Additionally, a quality label is planned. This confirms the authenticity of content, for example for media material or translations, based on the sealing and deposit.
For you, this means that MyCopyright is evolving from a pure deposit service into a comprehensive platform for proof, use and management of your works.
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital certificate of authenticity that is stored on a blockchain and refers to a digital file, for example an image, a text, a piece of music or a video.
The NFT itself is not the work, but a data record that is assigned to a specific digital object. This makes it possible to designate and trade a digital work as unique, even though the underlying file can still be copied.
Copyrights are not automatically transferred by selling an NFT. If you sell an NFT relating to your work, you generally remain the author. The usage rights that buyers receive result from the terms of the respective platform or from the contractual agreements.
To create an NFT, digital copies of a work are often produced and published on a platform. The necessary rights must be in place for this. If a person creates an NFT based on your work without consent, you can, depending on the platform, request the removal of the content and assert further copyright claims.
A UID number is the company identification number of an economically active company in Switzerland. It serves to uniquely identify companies and organizations vis-à-vis authorities and other bodies.
As an author, you generally do not need a UID number. You can leave the corresponding field in the portal empty.
If you register a publishing house or another legal entity, providing a UID number is required. You can look up the UID of your company in the official UID register.
Since 2011, companies and organizations of all legal forms can obtain a UID. Companies with an entry in the commercial register receive it automatically. You can find further information at the Federal Statistical Office.
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