A consultation of collective organizations, associations and unions in the field of audiovisual industry is taking place in Ljubljana. The consultation comes at a time when European countries, including Slovenia, are adopting a directive on copyright in the single digital market.
Representatives of international associations are present, and the focus is on the region of Southeast Europe.
Today’s consultation was prepared by the Association of Slovenian Directors, the Association of Slovenian Screenwriters and the collective organization AIPA, which enforces the rights of authors, performers and producers of audiovisual works. The discussion was aimed at the situation in the audiovisual industry in Slovenia and the region.
Emphasis on examples of good practiceRepresentatives of international associations such as the International Confederation of Audiovisual Authors (Avaci), the European Association of Audiovisual Authors (SAA) and the Association of European Directors (Fera) are also participating in the conference. As announced by Aipe, there will be a special emphasis on examples of good practice, and among other things, they will also present how it is with the transfer of the European directive into the national legislation of the EU countries.
The deadline for the transposition of the European directive on the enforcement of copyright in the single digital market into national legislation expired last June, and so far 16 EU member states have done so. This according to the CEO of the European Film Directors Association (Fera) Pauline Durand-Vialle means that a significant part of the AV community in Europe does not enjoy the rights brought by the directive, especially after the crisis of the last two years. Since creators mostly do their work as a freelance profession, in her opinion, it would be time for the transfer to end so that they could enjoy the rights that are now set at the European level.
Strongly accepted marketThe AV market has changed a lot in the last two years, as many people no longer watch TV in the same way as before, but choose movies and TV series from streaming service providers. According to her, most of them do not currently pay compensation to authors and performers. They are aware that with new methods of distribution and/or use of author’s works, they are losing certain resources, but in the long run this could mean that they would be creating for even less money.
Among the examples of good practices in the field of enforcing the rights of AV authors, Cecile Despringre, director of the World Association of Audiovisual Authors (SAA), mentioned Italy, Spain and Estonia, where the national legislation is quite advanced, so the European directive did not bring many changes to them.
Dvornik: The two laws will represent a big step forward in the protection of authorsSlovenia is among the countries that have not yet transposed the directive. Amendments to both laws in this area are pending adoption by the National Assembly, and with them, AV authors will get more rights in disseminating their works with the help of collective management. As the president of the Association of Slovenian Filmmakers said Clement Courtyardnote with satisfaction that the two laws, if adopted, will represent a major step forward in the protection of authors of AV works.
Before the consultation, the Avaci for Europe office was opened in Ljubljana. The confederation, which has been operating since 2020, cooperates with various associations and collective organizations of audiovisual authors around the world, and has areas geographically divided into Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eurasia, Latin America and Europe. The regional headquarters for Europe will operate in Ljubljana.
As the president of the confederation said Horacio Maldonado, started thinking about an organization that would connect AV authors, directors and screenwriters from five continents a few years ago. It was founded during the pandemic and is based in Buenos Aires.
In his opinion, the current time is very demanding for the rights of authors, so they must be united and cooperate in order to explain to the largest companies that are creating new ways of operating in the digital age that they must also share part of their income with authors. In this way, according to him, cultural diversity would be created, and authors would be given different working conditions.
The consultation will continue on Wednesday and Thursday with a meeting of the Avaci executive committee.
Slovenia is changing the legislationThe consultation comes at a time when Slovenia is also changing legislation related to the enforcement of copyright and related rights. The government approved the proposals for both laws in this area recently, and they were sent to the DZ according to their procedure, since the deadline for their adoption had already expired in June last year. Due to the delay in transposing the directive, Slovenia received two reminders from Brussels. In response to the second reminder, the European Commission granted it an extension until October 19 this year.
Source: Rtvslo
