April 28, 2024 | Anna Tchavtchavadzé
As part of their mission to protect culture and authors, the Société des gens de lettres (SGDL) and the Syndicat national de l'édition (SNE), with financial support from the Société française des intérêts des auteurs de l'écrit (SOFIA), have announced, in a press release, the creation of an authors' compensation fund.
The aim of the fund is to strengthen the protection of authors by providing them with compensation in the event of the compulsory liquidation of their publishing house;
The creation of this fund is in line with the reinforcement of the December 30, 2021 law aimed at strengthening the book economy and reinforcing fairness and trust between its players.
In particular, this law imposed a new obligation on publishing companies, namely to inform their authors in advance of any cessation of activity. This prior information will enable the authors concerned to lodge a claim for compensation with the fund, which will be examined by the SGDL and presented to a commission responsible for ruling on these claims.
This new system will be fully financed by SOFIA through the allocation of a portion of the so-called "irreparable" lending rights (publishers' share).
Compensation will be paid in the form of royalties.
To benefit from this fund, the author will have to justify an admitted or unpaid claim at the end of the liquidation procedure.
It should be pointed out that this system has been set up on an experimental basis for a two-year period, and may be extended.
Lawyer