Design and Artists Copyright Society

The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) is a UK not-for-profit rights management organisation that exists to collect and distribute royalties to visual artists.

It works to ensure that visual artists’ copyright and related rights are protected and that these rights are recognised both financially and morally.

DACS was established in 1984 and in the last five years, it has distributed £34.5 million in royalties to visual artists through its services, whilst retaining £6.21 million for its not-for-profit organisational costs. It represents 60,000 visual artists and artists’ estates worldwide through an international network of collecting societies. DACS is a member of CISAC (Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d´Auteurs et Compositeurs).

DACS was founded in 1984 by a group of artists and lawyers who identified that there was a need for an organisation to manage visual artist’s copyright in the UK, to ensure that they were fairly remunerated and their rights respected.

Copyright Licensing is the organisation’s longest running service where DACS acts as an agent on behalf of visual artists to manage requests to reproduce their work. Royalties are paid to artists through this service four times a year. 25% of the monies collected are retained by DACS for administration costs.

In 2001, DACS launched a new collective licensing service for visual artists. Known as Payback, this service distributes a share of revenue generated through various UK collective licensing schemes back to visual artists. Visual artists whose work has been reproduced in UK publications and on certain UK television channels are entitled to share of this revenue. Artists are required to submit a claim to DACS between June and September and royalties are then paid in December to successful claimants.

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