International conference explores challenges and opportunities in copyright and collective management across Latin America

About 150 authors and representatives of author’s societies, broadcasters, service providers, and music publishers from all over the world gathered at an international conference in Buenos Aires today to explore the current state-of-play in copyright and collective management in Latin America and across the globe.

Co-organised by CISAC’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Sociedad General de Autores de la Argentina (ARGENTORES), Sociedad Argentina de Autores y Compositores de música (SADAIC) and Directores Argentinos Cinematográficos (DAC), the annual International Conference on Copyright and Collective Management conference welcomed many distinguished guests.

Among those, Representative of the Government of Argentina, Secretary of State Dr Ricardo Forster, CISAC Director General Gadi Oron, CISAC Latin America and Caribbean Committee Chairman Alexis Buenseñor, Argentores Chairman Miguel Angel Diani, SADAIC Chairman Victor Yunes Castillo, DAC Chairman Carlos Galettini and CISAC’s international council of creators Writers and Directors Worldwide (W&DW) Chairman Yves Nilly, to name a few.

Opening of the Conference: CISAC’s Vision and Roadmap

Dr Ricardo Forster welcomed the participants and CISAC Director General Gadi Oron delivered the opening address, highlighting the growing importance of CISAC’s network of member societies around the world in giving individual creators a collective voice. 

"We live in increasingly challenging times for creators. The collective voice is important, especially today," he said.

Summing up the challenges faced by creators today, Mr Oron pointed to four key issues affecting rights and collective management globally, including: a copyright system that is under threat with attempts to reduce the levels of copyright protection, increasing scrutiny of the collective management system and an environment of easily accessible creative works that does not adequately compensate creators.

"Far too often, digital businesses treat creators and rights owners as an afterthought, when in fact it is the creators' works that allow these services to exist in the first place," he said.

He underlined the shifting paradigm for author remuneration as more and more music is consumed digitally. 

CISAC’s recently-published 2015 Global Collections Report showed that only 5% of the €7.8 billion in royalties collected globally by CISAC member societies on behalf of their authors are derived from digital services.

"If we agree that the future of the creative sector is in the digital market, then we cannot be satisfied with that 5%" Mr Oron said.  

"We need to rebalance the picture, and we must all work toward improving the situation.”

Mr Oron pointed to four key solutions, in a multipronged approach, that could help achieve better protection and fairer remuneration for authors : 

• A supportive legal framework: with entities who commercially benefit from online works to be held accountable for online royalties
• Developing technical infrastructures that support efficient documentation and licensing
• Best practices in collective management, with good governance models that foster accountability and transparency in the operations of collective management organisations
• An environment that sustains creative activity and that values the importance of creators, both culturally and economically.

International Conference Tackles Key Issues

In the afternoon, a discussion panel explored four key topics central to the key licensing rights and collective management issues on a regional and global level. 

Following a key note speech by W&DW Chair Yves Nilly, a panel discussion consisting of DAC Secretary General Horacio Maldonado, ARGENTORES President of the Professional Television Council Sergio Vainman, Cacho Santoro (SAGAI), SADAIC General Secretary Víctor Yunes and Horacio Malvichino (AADI), addressed the management of copyright in the audiovisual field and the key challenges for collective management in Latin America.

SADAIC member Víctor Yunes then gave a keynote speech about the perspectives of the Latin American musical repertoire in the United States, with speakers BMI Global Policy Senior Vice President Ann Sweeney, Universal Music Publishing Latin America Executive Vice-President John Echeverria and ASCAP Vice-President Alexandra Lioutikoff discussing its potential and expectations. 

The current status of the digital business and global and regional perspectives of the licensing structures were then explored by Google Play Head of International Music Licensing Sami Valkonen, Sony/ATV Music Publishing Latin America Senior Vice President Jorge Mejía and LatinAutor Chair Guillermo Ocampo, and moderated by IFPI Latin America Regional Director Javier Asensio.

Ending the days' event, the new European Directive on Collective Management and its impact on Latin America was discussed by Santiago Schuster, with final comments added by Gadi Oron.