Macedonian authors and performers suffer great losses while the adoption of the tariff for the regulation of audiovisual copyrights is stalled at the Commission for Mediation in Copyright and Related Rights. It is necessary to resolve this situation and the multi-year status quo for the regulation of audiovisual copyrights in the country as soon as possible. Precisely because of this, an emergency meeting was held yesterday in Skopje together with representatives from European associations and organizations for the protection and mediation of copyright and related rights, the Secretariat for European Affairs, and the Ministry of Culture.
Although we are the only Macedonian organization for collective management of copyright and related film rights in accordance with ZAPSP and we have a work permit issued by the Ministry of Culture since September 2018, we still cannot start active work and billing just because there is no active Mediation Commission in copyright and related rights that should approve the tariff.
“As far as we know, unofficially there is a president of that Commission without any member in it and because of that it cannot be approved or rejected. I sincerely hope for a quick start to the process. Taking into account the fact that we are currently under EU screening of all these things, copyright is high on the EU’s agenda and I think that we will soon resolve this in the interest of everyone,” said Kiril Gjozev, AZAS general secretary.
The meeting that we organized was attended by the General Secretary of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, Metodija Dimovski, the State Secretary and Deputy Chief Negotiator, Drita Abdui Halili, the Head of the Department for Copyright and Related Rights at the Ministry of Culture, Aco Stefanoski, representatives of AZAS, as well as high-ranking representatives of AZAS partner organizations from Europe, namely, Remi Derosier, General Director of SCAPR (Societies’ Council for the Collective Management of Performers’ Rights) from Belgium, Cecil Despringer, Secretary General of SAA (Society of Audiovisual Authors) from Belgium, José María Montes from Spain, Director of International Cooperation at AISGE Spain, Ioan Caes, Secretary General of AEPO ARTIS from Belgium, Gregor Štibernik, Director General of the Slovenian Organization for collective management of copyright and related film rights of performers, authors and film producers AIPA of Slovenia and Petar Kep, lawyer and operations manager at AIPA Slovenia.
For the international community in which we are a member together with the aforementioned representatives from the European associations, it is unacceptable that after almost four years the status quo has not moved and the tariff has not been approved.
Joan Kaes from Belgium said that in Macedonia we have an incredibly good law, a good permit, but it is unacceptable how it is not allowed to become practice and he said that AZAS must be allowed to start working so that legislation could be proven in practice.
Despringer added that the foundations have been laid for an incredibly good thing, but it is unclear what is preventing the tariff from being approved and asked for an answer when this situation would be resolved.
Maria Montes focused on local authors and performers and said:
– In recent years, the Macedonian film has been successfully circulating the world, but due to the problem hindering AZAS, the local authors and performers are not able to get the credits for the copyrights that are due to them. Because of them, it is necessary to approve the tariff as soon as possible.
Kep emphasized that the importance of an active labor association is huge because there are Slovenian-Macedonian co-productions where all authors and performers do not receive the same and proportionally.
We believe that authors and performers have the right to sue the Government for not being allowed to use what was previously given to them by the State. The Government is ready to review the reasons as soon as possible and inform AZAS and the public, as well as to appoint members of the Commission for mediation in copyright and related rights to approve the tariff.