Future objectives for collective management set in place at Regional Latin American and Caribbean Committee in Valparaiso

Forward plans for the next two years were the focus of this year’s Regional Latin American and Caribbean Committee (CLC) meeting. Representatives from 34 society members of CISAC gathered in Valparaiso, Chile including societies from Latin America, the Caribbean, United States, France, Spain, Poland and UK.

Topics included Latin American society governance guidelines, the need for a high level of corporate governance in collective management organisations, how non-disclosure clauses seriously affect transparency and negotiations, new legislation in Chile and Ecuador and new technical assistance programmes between Latin American societies. 

CISAC Board of Directors Chairperson Eric Baptiste stressed the need for international cooperation, “It is a key role of CISAC to make knowledge accessible to every member…we (CMOs) are only strong if we are united.”

Regional board members UBC CEO Marcelo Castello Branco, SACM CEO Roberto Cantoral and SADAIC CEO Guillermo Ocampo commented on the tasks ahead for CISAC.

CLC Chairman Victor Yunes and CISAC Regional Director Santiago Schuster provided a report on the state of collective management as well as projects for 2017 and 2018. These include cooperation programs in Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay and Dominican Republic; legal studies on the application of Ecuador's new law and in the field of direct licensing by publishers; and audiovisual tariffs and negotiations training programs and compliance with mandatory CISAC declarations.

Also discussed was the cooperation agreement in Colombia between its government, CISAC and SAYCO; the Paraguayan government and CISAC agreement; and the Mexico Memorandum of Understanding. SACM’s Carlos Cantoral spoke on Mexico’s experience with methods used for distributing YouTube collections. CISAC’s Carlos Bahamondez updated attendees on the previously launched Legislative Observatory Platform. The platform is a central resource on copyright bill information from 19 countries, aimed at gathering information submitted to Latin America parliaments back to 2010.