On Wednesday, March 26th, the 9th Copyright Forum, dedicated to the collective management of copyright and related rights, took place at the Iluzjon Cinema in Warsaw. Of course, our delegation could not miss it. We were represented by, among others, ZAPA director Dominik Skoczek and deputy director Sylwia Biaduń.
The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the organizer of the Forum, but a wide range of representatives of the audiovisual industry also gathered in the Iluzjon cinema hall, including rights holders (broadcasters, cable operators, cinema owners), but also other collective management organizations and creators and producers themselves represented by, among others, the Polish Screenwriters Guild, the Polish Directors Guild, the Polish Society of Cinematographers, the Polish Editors Guild, the National Chamber of Audiovisual Producers, the Polish Producers Guild, the Creative Poland Association and many, many others.
We are very happy that during the Forum we had the opportunity to tell those gathered a little more about the details of our activities, to remind them of our goals, but also to clarify certain inaccuracies and to repel the attacks that also appeared.
In the context of collective management, we reminded everyone that:
- A CMOs, or collective management organizations, are associations of creators that work for creators and are managed by the creators themselves. They are not entities in their own right, they are not set up to make a profit, and they can deduct only legitimate operating costs from the collected rights revenue.
- Every year, CMOs submit very detailed reports on their activities and are subject to strict supervision and control by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
- The license granted by the CMO allows TV broadcasters, cable operators and streaming platforms to operate legally without having to sign contracts with hundreds of thousands of authors.
- Mandatory collective management is the only solution that levels the playing field for creators against the tech giants!
We have also shown that as ZAPA:
- we collectively manage the copyrights to approximately 450,000 Polish and foreign audiovisual works
- we have implemented ISO 9001 and are subject to additional audits by professional certification companies every year
- we are one of the leaders among more than 160 collective management organizations from around the world
- and most importantly - we are effective! The largest distributions covering tens of thousands of creators and producers are made by us every six months
We have also presented our demands, the two most important of which are:
- Strengthening the competence of the Copyright Commission - so that users of rights cannot avoid paying the remuneration due to creators as easily as they do now.
- Strengthening the information claim - both for collecting societies and directly for creators. The changes should ensure that broadcasters or online platforms cannot refuse to provide data on the films used.
- Urgent reform of the system of levies on blank media - ZAPA remains ready to talk to and support the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in the announced work on the revision of levies and devices.
We would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this important environmental event and all those involved for the passionate discussions. We are delighted that we were able to present our perspective to such a wide and diverse audience!