Creators
Learn about creator affiliation, the Payback payment, and other royalties and services for writers and visual artists.

Affiliating with Access Copyright

Access Copyright's affiliation now open to creators whose works are published only in digital form

Want to become part of Access Copyright? Affiliate today using our online affiliation portal. 

At Access Copyright, we offer a variety of services designed to make it easy for our creator affiliates to be rewarded for the use of their works in schools, businesses, government and other organizations.

Affiliating with Access Copyright is free and offers many benefits for Canadian writers and visual artists.

What Can Access Copyright Do For You?

Royalty Payments to Affiliates: We manage licensing, collection of licensing fees and distribution of royalties on your behalf so that you can focus on what you do best - creating!

Payback: You will be eligible to receive our annual Payback payment depending on how much you contributed to the repertoire of works licensed by Access Copyright. All eligible affiliates will be able to begin claiming works published solely in digital form as of next year in addition to works that are published in print form.

You will be eligible for Payback as long as you registered with Access Copyright by the end of the previous year.

For example, if you became an affiliate of Access Copyright by the end of 2022, you will be eligible for Payback starting in 2023.

Advocate for Your Interests: Access Copyright makes sure the interests of our affiliates are heard by policy and decision makers on issues important to them, such as intellectual property.

Creator Affiliation Eligibility Requirements

To affiliate with Access Copyright, you must:

  • Be a writer, editor, translator or visual artist published in print or digital format, such as in a book, magazine, newspaper or scholarly journal for which you retain reproduction rights;
  • Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and not reside in Quebec;
  • Be at least 18 years of age;
  • Not already be affiliated with any other reproduction rights agency (such as COPIBEC in Quebec).

All applicants who fill out the online Creator Registration Form will be required to submit photocopies or photos or digital copies of their work for which they retain reproduction rights as they appear in the publication, at least two (2) pieces of acceptable identification and their Social Insurance Number (SIN) before their application may be processed.

One to three samples per rights holder type (i.e. writer or visual artist) may be required. 

Access Copyright is unable to offer affiliation to creators under certain circumstances. These include if the only works you own are:

  • Masters or doctoral theses unless they have been reprinted in commercial publications;
  • Blogs and websites except for online magazines, newspapers or journals with an ISSN;
  • Created as an employee or under a contractual arrangement where you have waived or assigned all rights to the work. This includes any work created while you were an employee of a publishing organization, unless there is a specific agreement between you and your publisher that you own the copyright to those works;
  • Dedicated to the public domain or is otherwise not covered by copyright; or
  • Unpublished.
Creators