ROYALTIES
on through our governance rules for member societies. It is important to remember that ultimately our members’ primary goal is to promote the interests of the creators. Competition between two entities that provide the same services in a single territory could potentially interfere with that, for a number of reasons, and there’s a delicate balance to be struck between competition on the one hand, and the protection of creators’ interests on the other.
2012 was a record year for collecting royalties—why?
It comes down to the continuous eff orts by our members to collect more, to be more effi cient in how they operate, and to collect from as many commercial users as they can, in a variety of diff erent ways.
We also have been doing a lot to increase collection in fi elds other than music, for example in the visual arts area, where we are working to promote the resale right of visual artists. T is right allows creators to obtain a share in the price paid when their work is resold in auction houses. It exists in about 70 countries. It doesn’t yet exist in the US or China, but in both countries there are now pending amendments to copyright law to introduce it. We want to ensure this happens.
rights, for example, and the current review of EU copyright rules.
We also work directly with governments to ensure that the legal framework enables suffi cient, eff ective protection of authors’ rights so they can collect royalties from commercial users. We continue to do that with a focus on developing markets such as Brazil, China, India and many countries in Africa. Generally speaking, we work to increase the voice of creators in every territory.
We consider public aff airs and lobbying as strongly linked to communications. We’re communicating more with the outside world on what we do and on our members’ work on behalf of creators, such as how much money is being collected, where and how.
We also promote communication between our members so that, for example, societies in Asia know about the challenges Latin American societies are facing, and societies in Europe are updated on what’s happening in other regions.
Ultimately, the strength of this system is in the links it forges between societies, so when a
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Chinese rights holder’s music is played in the US or South America, the Chinese creators obtain their royalties.
Another important thing we do is to operate and maintain the international databases that link the local databases of our societies. T is makes it easy for our members around the work to identify the rights holder of a song that’s played on the radio and pay the royalties to the correct owners of the rights.
Is competition between the societies a positive thing?
It depends where and when. In Europe, the EU Commission set diff erent initiatives to promote competition between societies, as part of its ‘single market’ approach. But the same approach is not necessarily relevant in other territories. In the majority of countries you fi nd one society for each category of right holders and this normally works to the benefi t of creators.
Competition can be good where it encourages effi ciency. T is is something that we’re working
T e challenges we face change according to the markets. We’re looking at the value of creative content in the online market by promoting a fair share of royalties for creators. T e amounts paid by some major services are very low, which is a major concern for us.
Are more societies sheltering under the CISAC umbrella?
We have four regional offi ces, covering Asia, Latin America, Europe (mostly Central and Eastern Europe) and Africa. Each one of these regional offi ces works with
local societies
and one of the things they’re working on is to promote the establishment of new societies in countries where they do not exist. For example, in many countries there are no societies for visual arts or audiovisual content. In a few markets collective management of rights is generally underdeveloped.
What’s your outlook for 2014?
We’ll be continuing what we have been doing, but with a stronger focus on giving creators visibility. We look at establishing new links between the creative community and legislators, governments and international institutions that develop the policies that aff ect creators. T e better protection creators get, the more they can contribute to the economy and culture with their creations.
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