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Membership means that certain rights are managed by ProLitteris and that you receive royalties for the use of your works.

Specifically, membership offers you the following:

• You receive payments in the main distribution in accordance with the distribution rules.
• You can benefit from additional exploitations when your texts are broadcast on radio and television or when your visual works are reproduced in the art market.
• You can become a cooperative member, take part in the general meeting and – as an author – receive support from the welfare foundation.

The rights administration agreement is free of charge and forms the basis for ProLitteris to collect and pay out royalties for you. You define which rights are included yourself in the ProLitteris portal. You can adjust your choice annually.

Your works are protected independently of membership with ProLitteris. Copyright protection arises automatically when they are created.

Become a member as early as possible so that you do not miss out on any royalties and can later receive social benefits if necessary.

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 rights administration agreement is useful for you if you are regularly active in creative or journalistic work, for example:

• Contributions in books, newspapers or magazines
• Content for radio or television
• Works of visual art or photography

As a member, you receive royalties from uses that are compensated by law as well as from further exploitations that you can hardly organize yourself.

Membership is free of charge. The conditions of the rights administration agreement and the statutes apply.

ProLitteris manages published works in the fields of text and image, as defined in the exploitation conditions.

These include:

• Texts: journalism, academic works, fiction, non-fiction, art books, spoken word, comedy, books and newspapers/magazines of all kinds
• Images: artworks, photographs, illustrations, sculptures, visual works of all kinds
• Also contributions in copies of works and parts of works, provided they are independently protected

The decisive factor is whether participation in a distribution is possible. The distributions of statutory royalties concern printed works (Print distribution for books and newspapers/magazines), the internet (Online distribution, especially for journalism and academic online services), radio and television (Broadcast distribution) and exhibited works (Expo distribution from 2027).

For music, film and stage, other collective management organizations are usually responsible.

When you register and for distributions, you confirm that your works are protected by copyright and that you hold the corresponding rights. ProLitteris checks this if necessary.

You can apply for a rights administration agreement if you meet certain requirements relating to yourself, your works, and your rights.

The conditions for all rightsholders are:

• Residence or nationality in Switzerland or Liechtenstein; as a publishing house you need a registered office or a branch
• Rights to texts or images that are published and accessible in Switzerland or Liechtenstein
• Proof of works, as required by ProLitteris (ISBN, ISSN, website, exhibition, etc.)

Additional conditions for publishing houses:

• UID number
• Activities and resources in Switzerland or Liechtenstein, e.g. staff, production, distribution, and marketing

The management of ProLitteris reviews your application on the basis of the statutes and the rights administration conditions and decides on the conclusion of the rights administration agreement.

No, you cannot conclude an exploitation agreement retroactively. The agreement is valid from the time it is concluded and applies 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 exploitation, even if the agreement is only concluded at a later date.

It is advisable to conclude the exploitation agreement as early as possible, as soon as you are professionally active. In this way, you ensure that your claims are recorded from the outset.

If you additionally become a member of the cooperative, this may also be relevant later for possible social benefits.

Copying levies are payments to a collective management organization for the right to use copyright-protected works and parts thereof for specific purposes.

Schools, companies, public administrations and private individuals have this statutory license, and the rightsholders affected by it have a right to compensation based on official tariffs of the collective management organizations.

Without copying levies, companies and other organizations would have to obtain licenses from publishing houses and other rightsholders and pay contractual royalties.

Copying levies and similar flat-rate royalties are in the interest of users, who would otherwise have to obtain contractual licenses. At the same time, they compensate the rightsholders for uses that, due to a statutory privilege of schools, companies and other persons, they are not allowed to control themselves (for example with warnings and legal action).

The revenue of the collective management organizations goes to authors (writers, artists, photographers, musicians etc.), publishing houses and other rightsholders.

The collective management organizations are obliged to manage the rights in an economical and rule-based way. They do not make a profit.

ProLitteris issues an invoice as a collective management organization when it is mandated, based on the Copyright Act (URG), to grant licenses and to collect a royalty.

In the area of copying levies and similar mass uses, there is a statutory right to compensation. The specific uses are not relevant (mandatory collective management).

For companies this means: A royalty to ProLitteris for the rightsholders is owed, regardless of whether copies are actually made. It is sufficient that an organization provides devices that make copying possible.

In order for ProLitteris to issue the invoice correctly, for example according to Common Tariff CT 8, all organizations are obliged to provide the necessary information.

This duty to provide information is set out in Art. 51 of the Copyright Act (URG). If information is missing, ProLitteris has to make an estimate and issue the invoice on that basis.

In most cases, the declaration results in a moderate annual royalty. The tariff has been approved by an authority and the management of ProLitteris is supervised by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property.

On the basis of the reported information, it is possible that a company does not owe any royalty, in particular if the company operates in a sector with a threshold (royalties only from 15 employees).

If an invoice is not paid, ProLitteris enforces the claim by legal means, for example with a debt collection procedure or a lawsuit.

If you receive a form or an invoice from ProLitteris, it is binding and based on statutory provisions.

ProLitteris collects copying levies on the basis of the Copyright Act (URG) and approved tariffs. These apply to companies, schools and libraries. ProLitteris distributes the income to authors, publishing houses and other rightsholders.

For you, this means:

• You must provide the requested information in the form.
• The invoice from ProLitteris is binding and will be enforced.
• You must report any corrections to your data; they will take effect at the latest for the following year.

ProLitteris is an official collective management organization under state supervision. For around 30 years, it has been authorized and obliged to collect statutory royalties.

The ProLitteris Welfare Foundation provides you with financial support in certain life situations if you are a cooperative member.

It provides two core benefits:

• Retirement pensions
• Emergency assistance

The retirement pension is based on fixed rules in accordance with the regulations of the Welfare Foundation.

Emergency assistance is assessed on an individual basis. Depending on your financial situation, the foundation board decides whether support is possible and to what extent.

Benefits from the ProLitteris Welfare Foundation can only be received by members of the cooperative.

For you, this means:

• You must be a copyright holder and at the same time a cooperative member of ProLitteris. A rights administration agreement is not sufficient.
• After reaching retirement age, you can receive an old-age pension, provided you can prove a low income.
• You can submit an application for financial support at any time.

For emergency aid, the foundation reviews your application and decides on the support based on your personal financial situation.

There is no right to emergency assistance.

Whether you receive support is decided by the foundation board on a case-by-case basis. The basis is your financial situation.

Please use the form for an application. Contact our Team Social.

You can submit an application to the Welfare Foundation by email.

For you, this means:

• You address your application to the Welfare Foundation
• if you wish, you will receive a form from ProLitteris

The foundation board reviews applications at its meetings in the following months:

• April
• June
• September
• December

In urgent cases, immediate assistance can also be decided outside these dates.

You can submit an emergency aid request if you are a member of ProLitteris and are in a serious financial emergency.

For you, this means:

• You must be a cooperative member of ProLitteris
• Your financial situation must make support necessary

Emergency aid is generally granted as a one-time contribution. It is intended to cover specific costs and can amount to up to several thousand Swiss francs.

The cultural fund supports cultural projects in the fields of text and image.

These include in particular initiatives in literature, visual arts and photography, as well as projects related to copyright and to the framework conditions of cultural creation.

Forthcoming activities are supported, not projects that have already been completed.

Organizations and institutions, such as associations, foundations or other sponsoring bodies, can submit an application. The foundation does not consider applications from individuals.

The funding is aimed at projects that are carried out within an organizational framework and have a connection to text, image or copyright-related issues.

The request must concern an upcoming activity that includes the work categories text and/or image.

The name or activity of ProLitteris must be expressed or mentioned in the activity.

The request must be submitted as a short document and should include the activity, the participants, the audience, the budget, the funding and the requested contribution.

Individual persons, certain individual works, and the general operations of an organization are not supported.

The project must concern text and/or image, but it may not be aimed at supporting one specific individual work. Nor does it refer to general funding of the ongoing activities of an institution.

There are two deadlines per year: applications before 1 February and before 1 October.

Applications submitted by 1 February are assessed in March; the projects should take place no earlier than in the autumn of the same year.

Applications submitted by 1 October are assessed in November; the projects should be carried out in the following year.