Latin American Dramatic and Audiovisual Rights Societies Push Collective Management and Rights Forward in Bogota Meeting

2016 CLC Dramatic and Audiovisual Meeting

On 19 April, CISAC organised the CLC Dramatic and Audiovisual rights societies meeting in Bogota. Over 70 participants from audiovisual societies across Latin America gathered in Colombia to provide updates on national issues and discuss key initiatives in the region. The event was opened by a series of speeches from CISAC Director General Gadi Oron, President of Writers & Directors Worldwide (W&DW) Yves Nilly, DAC Chairman Carlos Galletini and DASC Chairman Carlos Mitrotti. 

The meeting began with a presentation of the launch of The Audiovisual Campaign for screenwriters and directors in China - a symbol of the important achievements of the DLV CISAC members in 2015. 

CISAC Director General presented CISAC’s key priorities in promoting audiovisual rights, highlighting the strong commitment of CISAC regional directors in supporting new DLV societies. He gave a detailed analysis of the audiovisual market and the growing importance of audiovisual societies in CISAC. Concluding, Mr. Oron emphasized the need to cooperate,

At a time when so much value is captured by intermediaries, the combination of strong rights, and a solid collective management system, can guarantee that creators will get into negotiations with giant tech companies from a position of strength. It is a major challenge to put creators at a position of strength when you are facing some of the worlds’ most powerful companies on the other side, but we have no other choice. If we want to secure the future of directors and screenwriters, we need to do it – and we need to do it together."

Mr. Oron, Mr. Nilly, Mr. Galletini and Mr. Mitrotti stated their commitment to jointly address the challenges faced by AV creators worldwide. They recognized progress made by DAC to improve its royalty collections. Speaking next, Adriana Saldarriaga of DASC and Alexandra Cardona Restrepo of REDES presented the situation for audiovisual creators in Colombia. This opened a panel discussion with comments from celebrated filmmaker and CISAC Vice President Marcelo Piñeyro, CISAC Latin America and the Caribbean Committee Chairman Víctor Yúnes, W&DW Vice Chairman Horacio Maldonado and ARGENTORES Chairman Miguel Ángel Diani. Panellists addressed the situation of audiovisual creators in Colombia, DACS’s challenges in obtaining an operating license from the Colombian Office of Copyright, positive developments of the “Pepe Sanchez Act", which was recently introduced at the National Congress, and new initiatives in audiovisual rights management in Latin America and specifically in Chile.

Brazil’s new audiovisual society DBCA then reported on efforts in receiving authorization to operate as a collective management society. Mexico DLV societies, DIRECTORES and SOGEM, also reported on their most recent developments.

The second agenda item was a report on activities carried out by Writers & Directors Worldwide by W&DW President Yves Nilly and W&DW Vice President Mr. Maldonado. This centred on The Audiovisual Campaign, launched last October at W&DW’s annual congress in Beijing, China.  The campaign aims at raising awareness of the need for an inalienable right to remuneration for screenwriters and directors. Mr. Nilly highlighted  some positive examples in Latin America. He said, “If we act together as we do in Latin America, there will be no obstacle that cannot be overcome by audiovisual authors.” 

The W&DW report was followed by a presentation on audiovisual rights management in Latin America, with a focus on Chile. In 2015, the ad-hoc Committee of the Chamber of Deputies unanimously approved a bill granting audiovisual authors the inalienable remuneration right for the public communication of their works. 

Concluding the event, societies presented on their national situation in the field of audiovisual and dramatic rights. DACS offered their heartfelt gratitude to the Directors of DAC, President, Carlos Galletini, Secretary, Horacio Maldonado, and CEO, Luis Mangavilliano for their unwaverable support to the creation of DACS-Colombia.