Rights Committee Charter (2025)

Defining "Rights"

In book publishing, “Rights” usually refers to one of two important work flows:

• Rights “Out”: typically, rights are licensed “out”  from a person who (or entity which) is the designated rights holder for a creative work (Intellectual Property). Book rights are often licensed “out” from authors, from authors’ agents, and/or from Rights Departments within publishing companies.  Sometimes called “Rights Sold By.”
• Rights “In”: typically, rights are licensed “in” by  a publishing company or another entity that will be producing a physical or digital product using the creative work (IP) for which rights have been acquired. Sometimes called “Rights Acquired By” or “Rights Bought By.”

Note: when rights are licensed “out” to a book publisher, the publisher is licensing “in” a set of rights that typically enable publication of a book (in a variety of formats) and may also include that book publisher being granted a set of rights that the publisher is empowered to license “out” to others.

The types and nature of rights related to creative works in book publishing are constantly evolving. The list of potential rights, which is not intended to be exhaustive, includes: print publication and republication (in many formats, in designated territories), e-book (static or enhanced), audiobook; large print; book club editions; digital adaptations (beyond e-books); dramatic, TV, and film; commercial, merchandising, and brand; adaptations (for example, abridgements, board books, or picturizations such as comics and graphic novels); educational / school / classroom use (including course pack); same language rights for publication outside of original publisher’s primary territory; and translation rights.

The right to license e-books or audiobooks to aggregators who, in turn, offer collections of titles to their customers on a subscription or streaming service is a relatively new type of right, as is the fast developing and frequently discussed market for licensing book content to companies for use in training Large Language Model (LLM) Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as companies who are building other types of AI-based platforms and tools. 

Current State

Drawn from survey work and the committee’s direct perspective, the current state of rights management in book publishing continues to be characterized as follows:

• The importance of rights transactions is growing, as international demand for content and licensing increases, as new publishing models have emerged, and as publishers invest to fulfill their “duty of care” responsibilities to content creators.
• A significant opportunity exists to develop the infrastructure required to obtain revenue from existing contracted deals. Clarifying “who holds which rights” would reduce instances in which rights transactions either don’t happen at all for lack of contract details, or  are considered too difficult to monetize. Investing in systems to track agreements and monetize rights investments can enable rights holders to  build and keep up with transaction volume.
• Improving what we know about rights holders and related rights can generate meaningful rights revenue, as organizations identify and take advantage of opportunities to increase revenues through new rights licensing initiatives.
• Hybrid and remote work models have accelerated overall use of digital workflows, highlighting how far behind the rights segment of the supply chain is compared with other segments. Rights holders and rights buyers would benefit from workflow improvements, including the use of an industry-wide taxonomy for rights, implementation of rights metadata standards, digitization of information stored in physical media, automated workflows that track deals, agreements and payment statuses. The value of these improvements and more have been confirmed by BISG research in 2017 and 2020.
• The rights space is being heavily impacted by the accelerating use of AI. Activity and industry trends/information related to content licensing, copyright, and emerging AI technologies’ impact on rights should be closely monitored in tandem with BISG’s AI Working Group. The website https://www.copyright.gov/ai/ is one such credible source. 

Objectives

The rights committee identifies the most important rights-related problems facing the publishing industry, identifies areas of consensus where standards or best practices would be valuable, and leads online and in-person events to inform the broader rights community. To support these efforts, the committee will meet on a monthly basis in 2025, with work on specific projects—such as the Rights Royalty Statement Standards—broken out into working groups focused on that specific deliverable. The Rights Royalty Statement Standards Working Group will meet, at minimum, every other month in 2025.

Stakeholder Impact/Benefits

There are multiple audiences for the work done by the rights committee:

• Rights professionals who need core skills and an understanding of the relevant technology, including professionals within book publishers and within literary agencies, with experience levels ranging from new to veteran
• Those making rights-related investment decisions who need to understand the opportunities available through improved rights management, including its impact on M&A value
• Publishing professionals whose work touches upon rights, and who may not fully understand rights management and its implications for their roles (i.e., editors and others who are acquiring rights but are not exclusively rights professionals)
• Companies and vendors operating in rights marketplaces, including those capitalizing on the AI boom who are new to the book industry rights field

Accurately communicating rights information between rights holders and potential licensees can grow revenue, reduce transaction costs, and aid in diminishing legal risks and  costly errors. Making rights information more accessible for both internal and external interested parties  also improves publishers’ ability to financially benefit from their intellectual property.

Deliverables

In 2025 the Rights Committee will:

• Expand participation in the full committee and its working group, recruiting rights professionals from the agent, publisher, and industry partner segments. Outreach efforts to engage more international representatives will continue. Advocacy for a different and more robust approach to rights will come out of committee efforts.
• Continue to monitor new technology related to rights management (use of AI, smart contracts, rights hubs, blockchain.)  Liaison role with the AI Working Group.  Also monitoring new business models related to new tech developments (such as streaming subscription models, as well as implications/ strategies/opportunities  for licensing  for AI applications.)
• Update the Rights Solutions Providers List
• Expand rights resources made available on the BISG website, including: updating the Rights FAQ; launch of the directory of imprint owners; development of a workflow to maintain the directory as more information is gathered, as new imprints are created, and as existing imprints are transferred to new ownership; Royalty Statement Standards (a separate working group has been formed for this); rights resources list (books, blogs, etc.); and rights education (via virtual and in-person programming).
• Plan and deliver rights-related programming, including: an in-person program (scheduled for January 31) focused on rights marketplaces, rights activity in university press and STM publishers; Royalty Statement Standards; and review existing content to see if new webinars can be delivered through the use of prior content accompanied by a live Q&A.

Blockers

Different parts of the rights community see problems in different ways, and they pursue
solutions with different methods and, at times, conflicting objectives. Use of terms also varies across markets and some types of publishers. Those working outside of rights do not see effective rights management as a fundamental source of significant revenue and enterprise value. As a result, reaching a diverse set of target stakeholders may be a challenge, and willingness to invest in rights management may be difficult to foster.

Timeline