CISAC European Committee Conference

06.04.2017

The opening of the European Committee of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) was held on April 5, 2017 at the National Hotel in Moscow. Over 100 participants from Europe, USA and other countries and regions attended the conference. Jose Jorge Letria (CISAC European Commission Chairman), Maxim Dmitriev (Russian Authors’ Society Director General) and Andrei Krichevsky (Russian Union of Right Holders Director General) welcomed the meeting.

The Russian part was opened by Sergey Matveev, the Science and Technologies Department Director of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. He addressed the issue of inevitability of globalization and consolidation processes, including the sphere of copyright management.

Maxim Dmitriev, RAO Director General, touched upon the problems RAO had to face not long ago.

He certified that an independent audit of RAO royalty distribution system revealed regular violations. Significant remuneration amounts had been “manually” credited to a limited list of little-known works. RAO Head drew CISAC management attention to the fact that in May, 2016 Mitko Chatalbashev, CISAC Regional Director for Europe, conducted a similar check in RAO, and basing on its results, he concluded that RAO distribution procedures comply with CISAC Standards and Professional Rules.

“We would like to be clearly understood: we are in no way questioning cooperation with CISAC. RAO, being a CISAC member, will continue its active participation in the activities of this confederation. We recognize all the key principles declared by the copyright community and, first of all, transparency. Any CISAC permanent member has the right not only to vote, but also to be heard. In this regard, we ask the organization seniors to consider the establishment of a special body, which will be presented by a new CISAC member to deal with the development of copyright societies in the Eastern part of the European Region”, Maxim Dmitriev said to the audience.

RAO Director General assured the conference participants that the new management already has a clear understanding of what needs to be done to preserve and improve RAO.

Andrei Krichevsky, RUR Director General, said that “intellectual property, as a transit system of creativity to economy, is now gaining momentum”. As an example, Mr. Krichevsky mentioned the initiative to create an online platform, the so-called copyright stock exchange, for licensing music, performances and phonograms. In his opinion, this kind of a digital platform or copyright stock exchange “should be the next stage in the development of the collective copyright and related rights management system”. A decision like this will make the owning of rights and receiving of royalties easy and affordable throughout the territory of Russia and the whole world.

CISAC Board of Directors Deputy Chairman Javier Gutierrez Vicén, CISAC Legal Representative Gabor Faludi, CISAC Senior Counsel Constance Herreman, BMI Senior Vice President for Global Politics Anne Sweeney, Mail.Ru Group Deputy General Manager, LLC “VKontakte” Executive Director Dmitry Sergeev and BUMA / STEMRA Director General Wim van Limpt (The Netherlands) reported as well.

The first working day of the Conference ended at a festive evening in Igor Butman’s Jazz Club. Igor Butman and his quartet’s performance was a special gift for the guests.

Text on-line broadcasting – in the Facebook conference.