Royalties, Authors

remuneration paid to the author of a literary, scientific, or artistic work, or to his heirs, for the use of the work. In the USSR author’s royalty rates are established by the Council of Ministers of the USSR or by the councils of ministers of the Union republics (for example, the Apr. 7, I960, resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR “On Author’s Royalties for Literary Works of Art”). The amount of an author’s royalties is specified within these rate limits by contract with the author. If there are no firmly established author’s royalty rates, the amount is set by the agreement of the parties (for example, author and publisher) in conformity with established rates.

As a general rule, the author receives royalties for the first and each subsequent use of the work (for example, republications, theater or concert performances, and the circulation of motion picture or television film versions). The amount of royalties for a publication depends on the type of work, its size, the number of previous editions, and in some instances the circulation. For the public performance of a work (play, concert, and so forth), the royalty amounts to a percentage of the box-office receipts. Payment of some types of author’s royalties (specifically, for the public performance of a work, the additional remuneration for the use of a work in motion pictures and television, and the use of works of applied art in commercial products) is made only through author’s organizations acting within the framework of the Writers’ Union of the USSR and the Artists’ Union of the USSR.

Heirs receive royalty payments of up to 50 percent of the amount that would be due to the author during his life, usually over a period of 15 years figured from January 1 of the year of the author’s death. The legislation of the separate Union republics provides heirs with payments of less than 50 percent of this amount. (In the RSFSR heirs receive 20 percent for the publication of nonfiction works.)