SPAUTORES Holds Third International Seminar

On 25-26 November, Portuguese authors’ society and CISAC member SPAUTORES, supported by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, held their third international seminar in Lisbon, Portugal on ‘Culture, Lusophony and the Rights of the Author in the Digital Era’. Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA) President José Jorge Letria opened the two-day, global seminar which gathered a wide array of esteemed government officials and society representatives, including VEGAP Director General and CISAC Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors Javier Gutierrez Vícen.  Topics of discussion centered on the rights of authors in a period of global uncertainty, reflections on culture in the digital world and updates from numerous collective management organisations in Lusophony.

CISAC Director General Gadi Oron, together with José Jorge Letria, closed the event.  Highlighting a return to growth in global royalties in 2014 (+2.8%), he stressed the need to increase the level of copyright/authors’ rights protection and expend the system of collective management of rights in the developing world, especially in African countries who make up only 0.7% of global collections.  He also underlined the need to grow revenues from increasingly important digital markets which at present account for only 6.5% of global collections.

Mr Oron was positive on the “efficient and meaningful progress achieved within the Lusophony” in developing collective management and promoting copyright protection. He stressed the importance of international collaboration amongst authors’ societies and within the global community of creators in order to “reclaim the narrative taken by opponents of copyright driven policies”. Mr Oron commended SPA for extending cooperation between societies of the Portuguese speaking world, actions that will “help improve the system, grow the pie and ensure more revenues flow back to creators.”