Australian scriptwriters launched a multi-million-dollar legal case against Screenrights, the organization the Australian Government authorizes to collect royalties in the film and television industry. The case was filed in the Federal Court of Australia by the 2,600-member Australian Writers’ Guild and the AWG Authorship Collecting Society on 3 March.
Scriptwriters say that instead of protecting them, Screenrights – which was established in 1990 to collect and distribute royalties paid by educational and other users of Australian films and TV programs – may have misdirected possibly tens of millions of dollars in royalties that should have been paid to writers over the past two decades. More information here.