Jose Maria Montez: “Ukraine has to implement a system of
compensation payments for private copying” Jose Maria Montez, Director of the Legal and International Relations Department of the Organisation of Collective Management of Performers’ Rights (AISGE), Spain, shared his impressions of the organisation and work of the Interregional Seminar on protection of audiovisual works and performances which took place within the framework of the International Scientific and Practical Conference in Svaliava. He outlined the main problems existing in this sphere and expressed his readiness for further cooperation in addressing the problems of the system of protection of audiovisual performances. – You presented a very thorough speech at the seminar. Which of the matters are, from your point of view, the most important and urgent in this field?  – My primary goal of participation in this conference was to raise the participants’ awareness of the needs of the system of protection of audiovisual performances. Unfortunately, this system is not sufficiently developed in Ukraine. I believe that today it is very important not to let producers take all the performers’ lawful rights over to themselves. Besides, it was necessary to gain support of the seminar participants in order to continue the negotiation process within WIPO in order to sign an international agreement, which would contribute to creating an efficient mechanism of audiovisual performances protection, so I mentioned it in my presentation. I recon that performers’ rights, especially when the right for remuneration is concerned, must be duly regulated within the framework of the collective management system. Unfortunately, when producers carry out negotiations concerning creation of an audiovisual work, they try to reserve almost all exclusive rights to themselves, leaving performers in a very disadvantageous position. Therefore, at least the process of just remuneration has to be controlled by the collective management organisations.
– One of the key and controversial topics in the audiovisual sphere is the one concerning the mechanisms of fee formation and remuneration distribution. – Yes, in my presentation I touched on an important issue – the tariff system, which is the basis for calculation of just and favourable remuneration. During the seminar, I addressed to the community of collective management of Ukraine with some techniques and basic principles of the correct tariff fixing in order to avoid appeals concerning the amount of remuneration in future. It is also necessary to consider the fact that the majority of collective management organisations in many countries are monopolistic institutions. I refer not to the commercial meaning of the term, but to the fact that the collective management organisations prescribe tariffs, which are often unjustified. – What would you like to advise the Ukrainian side as regarding addressing the problems of improving the system of protection of audiovisual performances? – Of course I would like to make some suggestions for Ukraine to enable it to bring its system of protection of audiovisual performances into accordance with the system in place in European countries. First of all it is necessary to carefully study the international tools and legislation in this sphere. Ukrainian legislation has to provide for efficient norms which would advocate both producers’ and performers’ interests. I also have information that a system of compensation payment for private copying does exist in Ukraine, but I am not certain that this system works. If it is so, Ukraine has to spare no effort to implement it, because such systems work smoothly in the majority of European countries. – Were your expectations regarding the participation in the Conference justified? – The level of the Conference and the Seminar was very high and it was very gratifying to network with so many colleagues. The only drawback I saw was the lack of time to discuss the participants’ presentations. In my opinion, when forums of such kind take place, when urgent practical matters are discussed, the audience has to be able to hear different viewpoints from various participants – representatives of countries, producers, performers and other interested parties. In any case, the seminar proved to be very useful. Let’s say, we were able to update and complete the information we had received during a similar seminar in June 2009 in Kyiv.
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