News

In Belgium, a Royal Decree on the resale right published in June called for the creation of a one‑stop shop for the management of resale right.
To this end, GESAC’s Belgian member SABAM has developed a digital platform, in consultation with SOFAM, designed to be an easy, complete and quick tool to consult resales of copyrighted artworks.
This platform is an important step forward for all players in the art market. Rights holders get an overview of the resale of their works while professionals in the art market have an easy way to declare their sales.

To check out the e-RR platform (electronic Resale Right), visit www.resaleright.be.

The Customer Contact Management Association (CCMA) rewarded Wim van Limpt, manager Member Service Department at Buma/Stemra, with the Dutch Custom Contact Manager Award 2015. Van Limpt received the Award from Simone van den Berge, board member of CCMA during their MatchQ CC Manager Award 2015 in the Aviodome auditorium in Lelystad.

Wim, who scored a 90% on employee satisfaction acts on his conviction that “staff make a difference and they are the true capital of a company” accroding to the members of the jury. Over 50 Contact Center Managers were nominated for this prize, which awards inspiring leadership, excellent customer relations and passionate drive for innovation. The election of CC Manager of the year followed the ECCS certification for the Members Service Department of Buma/Stemra earlier this year. In 2014, Buma/Stemra was the first society to be rewarded with the ECCS certification; the European quality standard for customer contact departments.

Find out more here (in Dutch).

On Friday 18 September, GESAC hosted the collective management part of the Chinese Legal Affairs Commission’s (LAC) European study visit. Also attending this meeting, which was held at the Sabam offices in Brussels, were representatives of CISAC and CEIPI. The meeting was organised following a request from IPKey, a Commission initiative to facilitate the development of an IPR framework in China that embraces the principles of effectiveness, fairness and transparency.

The Chinese government is currently working on a reform of its copyright legislation, which sparked this visit to Europe. The new CRM Directive and the impact of its provisions on CMOs across Europe were some of the topics of interest. As an important trade partner of the European Union, cross border licensing of music in particular was addressed during this meeting. Also on the radar for Chinese authorities were European best practices regarding the recognition of directors and screenwriters as the authors of audiovisual works and the collective management of their rights.

LAC indicated that the Chinese government was considering the integration of resale right in its new copyright legislation. GESAC warmly welcomed this move and together with the other attendees of the meeting, provided more information on the implementation of this right in Europe. The administrative aspects of the management of visual rights in general were also discussed: an important subject for Europe which sees some of its comics’ characters like Hergé’s Tintin and other visual works widely exported to China and the rest of the world.