Business Technical Committee Pushes Future of Documentation & Distribution Standards Forward in Lisbon

Approximately 150 guests representing 66 authors’ societies convened on 13-14 April to bring best practices in copyright and collective management of rights to Lisbon, Portugal. CISAC’s Business Technical Committee (BTC) unites experts and professionals to discuss creating, implementing and troubleshooting all standards and procedures related to documentation and distribution issues. This year, the BTC meeting was held under the leadership of BTC Chairperson Andreas Thiele of GEMA and Vice-Chairperson Gustavo Gonzalez of ABRAMUS.

Kicking off the committee, the BTC saw Andreas Thiele being re-elected as Chair, Anthony Gentili of SOCAN elected as Vice-Chair, and the current BTC Sub-Committee confirmed for the 2017-2018 term. Once elections were completed, CISAC Director of Business Rules and Standards Sylvain Piat updated the BTC on CISAC’s global priorities as well as the status of the Governance Reform project. Mr. Piat highlighted the importance of the Professional Rules and Binding Resolutions in the reform.

He was followed by VEGAP Deputy Director Beatriz Panadés sharing information on the topics currently at stake within the AGP repertoire and which can potentially benefit from the activities conducted by the BTC.

The BTC meeting then shifted to music repertoire distribution issues, starting with the Retransmitted Channel Working Group activities presented by Buma-Stemra International Department Manager Johan Visser. The findings of a survey conducted by the working group were discussed along with proposals and recommendations. In general, the working group identified the continued need for a Retransmitted Channels index, particularly for transparency for societies and publisher members of societies, and such an index should be kept simple in order to be more effective and more likely to be utilized. It was also agreed that the working group should further analyse the outcomes of the survey before recommending any change to the 2010 recommendations.

BMI International AVP Consuelo Sayago reported on the topic of Distribution Summary Statements and how this would now be passed to the Business Exchange Expert Group (BEX) for deeper consideration. 

Next on the agenda, Olivier Le Covec of SACEM reported on the work carried out by the Distribution Methods Working Group and reminded the background of the proposals presented to the BTC. In 2015, the CISAC General Assembly agreed to suspend the Professional Rules and Binding Resolutions related to the use of the Distribution Methods Database due to poor functionality in inputting information at the time. Proposals to replace this database with a “template” distribution rules and methods document, along with amendments to the Professional Rules and Binding Resolutions were brought forward by the working group. The new, flexible “template” approach allows societies to submit their distribution rules and methods through either a template document or any other proprietary document meeting the minimum standards. Member societies would then be required to supply yearly updates to these documents. The BTC reviewed and welcomed the proposed changes that would apply as from June 2017 after approval by the General Assembly. A formal vote by email will be called soon after the BTC meeting itself.

Following music repertoire distribution issues, SOCAN Director of International Relations Anthony Gentili addressed the review of the Principles for Documentation and Distribution Binding Resolutions and Best Practices document including revisions proposed by the Binding Resolutions Working Group. Changes were made in regards to the content of the document, its order, the addition of numerous process flow diagrams to increase comprehension and a review of the wording of the document. One key improvement is the document itself brought both the Binding Resolutions and Best Practices individual documents into a single one. After presenting the changes, the BTC adopted the proposed “Principles for Binding Resolutions and Best Practice,” which would replace the current version.

Mr. Gentili then spoke on the work carried out by the working group on Undistributed Shares, defined as “the portions of a work for which the Original Society did not have sufficient documentation in order to identify and distribute all shares”. First findings from a survey conducted by the working group were presented and follow-up activities will be conducted with the objective to present a recommendation at the 2017 BTC.

Declan Rudden of CISAC and Mr. Thiele each reported on the cross-industry initiatives that develop projects of common interest to creators, publishers and societies. Afterwards, Frédéric Rampelberg of SACEM, Chair of the Business Exchange Experts Group (BEX), presented an update on the CRD format and the inclusion of Fees in Error.

Mr. Gonzales provided a report on a survey on potential online-related activities from the BTC Online Working Group that encompassed feed-back from MTC members and with the participation of BIEM. The main objective is to examine activities that could be developed together to serve members’ interests. This includes information sharing on societies’ practices and standardization of elements related to online licensing and processing.

Moving back to the cross-industry initiatives, Sylvain Masson of BMI made a much more detailed presentation of the project Access to CIS-Net by Rights Holders, highlighting the three levels of access that will be offered to creators and publishers, and calling societies to actively participate in the promotion of the initiative to their own affiliates.

The last afternoon was dedicated to extensive presentations of CIS-Net solutions, focused on ISWC dissemination, Data Clean-up and Integrity, AV Batch Services and UP Batch Services, with examples of successful implementation by societies. This session was closed with a presentation by FastTrack of the next version of CIS-Net that will be released in June 2016, which will include an improved user interface as well as a new single work dashboard feature.