Ljubljana - The Slovenian Organization of Authors and Publishers for Reproduction Rights (SAZOR) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GSZ) signed on Monday an agreement governing fees for photocopying copyrighted literature, scientific texts and journalistic work or their translations in companies.

SAZOR will now call on companies - there are around 40,000 in the country - to sign a licence contract to get permission to photocopy these works for own use.

Subject to the agreement are companies with at least one employee, but they will be put in three different tariff groups based on the number of employees and their education.

The companies will pay a lump sum once a year, this year at only 50% of the set tariff, which will gradually rise to 100% in 2024.

The annual payment for micro-companies - with up to ten employees - will be between 4 and 12 euro, and at 273 to 1,365 euro for companies with over 1,000 employees.

SAZOR, which is licensed by the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office to collectively manage reproduction rights for literary, scientific, journalist and educational texts, will then distribute the collected money among the authors of the photocopied works.

The agreement was signed by Rudi Zaman and Luka Novak for SAZOR and by GZS director Aleš Cantarutti, who hailed it as a step forward in respect of copyrights.

SAZOR said in the press release that with the latest agreement, Slovenia has joined the majority of EU countries, which have agreements governing photocopying at companies.

A similar agreement was signed a few years ago with the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport for primary and secondary schools and kindergartens.