News

Marielle Gallo MEP, the rapporteur on the CRM Directive, has now published her working document on the site of the European Parliament. You can read it (in French only, for now) here.

Gesac, the makers of this web platform, will soon comment on the paper here – so stay tuned.

In the mean time, here’s a re-cap of Gesac’s position on the Collective Rights Management Proposal.

You can read Gesac’s full opinion here.

In the first in a series of debriefings, Véronique Desbrosses, general manager of GESAC, shares her thoughts on the policy discussions affecting author societies across Europe. GESAC is the association of European author societies which founded this web platform.

Last week was a busy time for GESAC – what was the highlight for you?  

There were two crucial events for us last week, both in the European Parliament. The first was a lunch debate that brought authors together with the CEOs of their author societies and  MEPs. The aim of the event was to demonstrate the close ties that exist between authors and their societies and to highlight the crucial function that author societies continue to serve.

It also gave the MEPs and assistants present the chance to question the societies on the issues that really concern them.

We were pleased with the interest the Parliament is clearly taking in the issues surrounding the collective rights management dossier, and hope the event clarified any outstanding concerns. You can read more about the event here.

The second highlight was certainly our participation in a series of stakeholder meetings led by Mrs Marielle Gallo, the MEP who is steering the collective rights management proposal through Parliament. You can find the full calendar for the legislation here.

Much is said about the transparency and governance of collective management societies, but what is the reality? What role do societies have in authors’ professional life? What place and role do authors have in their society? Do they have a real say in how their rights are managed? How do they take part in decision-making?

These are just some of the questions mooted on Tuesday in the European Parliament in Brussels. Authors and their societies met with parliamentarians engaged in the collective rights management dossier to share ideas, raise concerns and explain their point of view.

In front of a packed-out crowd, three Members of the European Parliament, Helga Trüpel, Marietje Schaake and Emma McClarkin were given the chance to question both the CEO of the author society active in their home country and one of this society’s members. The event was kindly hosted by MEP Cecilia Wikström.

This week, Anton Reixa – CEO of SGAE – spoke at the Creators’ Conference in Brussels.  In a frank and thought-provoking speech, he outlined some of his concerns about the situation of authors in general and in particular in Spain.