CISAC Shares Insight on Collective Management at International Conference in Kazakhstan

20160707 - Kazakhstan International Conference 1
Articles

In Astana, Kazakhstan on 7-8 July, at the invitation of the Ministry of Justice, CISAC Director General Gadi Oron and CISAC Regional Director for Europe Mitko Chatalbashev participated in an international conference on “Securing and Protecting Author and Neighbouring Rights in the Republic of Kazakhstan: Situation, Problems and Perspectives” held at L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University. The event was attended by 80 participants from the government, Kazakh Parliament, Supreme Court judges, representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Culture and Education, local and foreign societies (KAZAK, Abyroy, BMI, RAO, RUR, AAS, Kyrgyzpatent, GCA) and WIPO, among others.

CISAC provided expert insight during sessions on collective management of authors' rights, sharing information on the importance of collective management, the role and duties of collective management organisations (CMOs) representing authors, and good governance.    

Gadi Oron gave one of the opening speeches and later provided a presentation on CISAC’s activities and its role in promoting good governance among its members.  Mitko Chatalbashev then followed with an in-depth focus on “one-stop shop” licensing and the benefits of such licensing solutions in Central and Eastern Europe. This presentation showed the wide use of extended collective licensing and other one-stop shops as an effective legislative response to the specific music market in this European sub-region.

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CISAC Director General Gadi Oron addresses conference participants in Astana

CISAC also held meetings with senior government officials from the Ministry of Justice: Ms Elvira Azimova, Deputy Minister of Justice and Mr Abzal Estayev, Director of the Department of IP at the Ministry of Justice. The meeting gave the opportunity to raise CISAC’s concerns with the current legislative framework in Kazakhstan, which allows the proliferation of the number of active societies in the country and permits all societies to administer rights under an “extensive collective management” scheme in parallel to one another. CISAC has witnessed a rapid increase in the number of societies operating in Kazakhstan without the means, expertise and resources to manage rights - a situation which has already resulted in a drop in royalty rates. This alarming situation was raised with the government. CISAC petitioned the Ministry of Justice to take measures to prevent further deterioration of the situation. It was agreed that the Ministry of Justice will seek input from CISAC on new regulation on copyright and collective management as well as information on measures taken in other countries that face a similar situation.  

Press coverage (in local language):

europe
conference
Gadi Oron
Kazakhstan