Design and Artists Copyright Society

DACS, Design and Artists Copyright Society

33 Great Sutton Street
London
EC1V 0DX
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 20 7336 8811
Fax: +44 20 7336 8822
Email: info@dacs.org.uk
web: http://www.dacs.org.uk

Chief Executive:
Chief Executive : Gilane Tawadros
Chief Executive Phone : +44 (0)20 7336 8811 or Personal Assistant +44 (0)30 7553 9059
Chief Executive Email : gilane.tawadros@dacs.org.uk

KEY REPRESENTATIVES
Director of Legal & International : John Robinson
E-Mail : john.robinson@dacs.org.uk
Phone : +44 (0)20 7553 9065

Year operations began :
1984

Purpose :
The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) is the copyright and collecting society for visual artists in the UK. We are an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation open to all creators in the visual arts as defined by the British 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act, including fine artists, photographers and commercial artists. DACS is a licensing body, issuing individual licenses and entering into collective agreements for the various uses of artistic works on behalf of artists and visual creators. Individual reproduction rights licensing revenue is distributed to artists four times a year while collective licensing revenue is distributed annually through DACS' Payback service. From February 2006, DACS has also been administering the new Artist's Resale Right in the UK. Since July 2006, we have been distributing resale royalties to artists every month. In January 2012, the UK government implemented the final phase of the Directive on Resale Right for artists (Directive 2001/84/EC) and the right now extends to works created by deceased artists. DACS is currently governed by a board of 9 directors, appointed by open recruitment procedures according to published job descriptions to ensure the best mix of skills and experience. Our Articles of Association require us to ensure that there is a substantial representation of visual authors/creators on our Board. We have also launched our Creators' Council to provide creator perspective and influence on our activities. Creators are drawn from a variety of artistic disciplines to ensure we have the widest view of the issues which matter most to artists.

Members :
DACS offers rights services to all types of visual creator: fine artists, commercial photographers and illustrators, sculptors, architects, designers, craftspersons, cartoonists and so on. Today, most leading artists in the UK use at least one of DACS' services. DACS represents 80,000 UK & international artists in the UK for all copyright and related rights: reproduction rights, collectively licensed rights and the Artist's Resale Right. In addition, DACS undertakes to represent all other visual creators in collective licensing schemes. These visual creators can claim for a share of collective licensing revenue each year through our successful Payback service. Since the introduction in the UK of the Artist's Resale Right Regulations in February 2006, DACS has been collecting and distributing royalties from this new right to artists whose works qualify for a royalty under the Regulations. DACS now has over 3,000 individual mandates from many noted UK artists. Under the UK Regulations, compulsory collective administration was the option selected for management of the right, and a provision has existed for one collecting society to be deemed to have the authority to manage the right on behalf of rightsholders even where they have not expressly mandated a collecting society for the management of their resale right. DACS has acted in this capacity since 2006.