15 September 2022

PRESS RELEASE: GESAC announced the winners of the last three ALAI European Author’s Right Award at the Annual ALAI Congress

GESAC has issued a press release on today’s ALAI European Authors’ Right Award Ceremony.

Learn more about the event below.

Estoril, Portugal, 15 September 2022 – GESAC is proud to announce that the winners of the ALAI European Author’s Right Award have received their prizes at an outstanding ceremony held as part of the ALAI Congress in Estoril, Portugal. The ALAI European Author’s Right Award, supported by GESAC, is granted annually to the most eminent essay on authors’ right with a European dimension, in a competition participated by young academics from around the world.

After two years of being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the winners of the last three editions of the award were celebrated at the Hotel Palacio Estoril, with the participation of ALAI Congress attendees.

Andrée Glancia Madinda, winner of the 2022 edition, Seun Lari-Williams, winner of the 2021 edition, and Thomas Verborgh, winner of the 2020 edition, chosen by an international jury, were presented by two eminent members of the Jury: Raquel Xalabarder Plantada, Director of the Law and Political Science Department at the UOC Open University of Catalonia and Caroline Bonin, Director of Legal Affairs of Sacem. The evening began with speeches by Frank Gotzen, President of ALAI, and GESAC’s General Manager Veronique Desbrosses.

The ALAI European Authors’ Right Award supported by GESAC has been launched to inspire the next generation of Intellectual Property experts. The ALAI Award has had four previous editions, and each one received a broad response from several countries. The fifth edition was also announced, and students interested in the field are encouraged to apply!

GESAC’s General Manager Véronique Desbrosses commented: “With this project, our objective as GESAC is to help make authors’ right an appealing, vibrant, and inspiring discipline for the new generation of IP experts. We trust in the authoritative academic knowledge represented within the ALAI community, and count on the future IP experts, to continue to passionately contribute to the creation of a positive legal environment for artistic creation and cultural diversity.”

The Award Ceremony also featured two musical performances: Júlio Pereira, a musician, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, and of Carlos Mendes, a singer and composer, who performed the Ukraine-supporting song “Azul e Amarelo. O Destino”, which translates to “Blue and Yellow. The destiny”, lyrics by José Jorge Letria. The musicians performed thanks to the kind initiative of SPA, the Portuguese authors’ society and a member of GESAC.

Full list of the ALAI European Authors’ Right Award 2020, 2021, and 2022 winners:

2022 ALAI European Authors’ Right Award winner: Andrée Glancia Madinda for her essay “The text and data mining exception in the Directive on copyright in the digital single market: a stormy outlook for author’s rights”
2021 ALAI European Authors’ Right Award winner: Seun Lari-Williams for his essay “Bridging the Value Gap Between Content Creators and Digital Media Platforms: A Case Study of YouTube”.
2020 ALAI European Authors’ Right Award winner: Thomas Verborgh for his essay titled “Multi-territorial licensing of rights in music for online use and early evaluation”

See here for more information on the award.

Policies

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence brings about many new opportunities for our lives, including in the field of culture and creativity, but its applications also raise a number of ethical and legal questions due to their wide-spread uncontrolled and unchecked usage.

Policies

Music Streaming

Music streaming has unquestionably become the predominant means of enjoying music, replacing traditional physical media and expanded far beyond the live sector by providing user-friendly, high quality, and affordable access to the largest possible repertoire anytime, anywhere, online, or offline.

Songs and compositions are at the heart of this thriving market, which counts 524 million users on subscription-based music services globally, reaches more than 2 billion users including the streaming on UGC platforms, and offers more than 70 million tracks from approximately 8 million artists.

Yet, the authors and composers cannot benefit adequately from this success, and the debate over unfairness of this market is gaining traction across Europe and around the world.

There is a need to look more closely at how songwriters and composers are connected to this thriving economy and what can be done to improve their currently neglected situation.

Read below to find out more about the Music Streaming market.

Policies

Buy-out contracts: a dangerous threat to European creators

European music creators (composers, lyricists etc.) are being forced to forsake thousands of euros in future earnings by draconian ‘work made for hire’ (WMH) and buy-out contracts.

Online audiovisual services and broadcasters that are mainly US-based are forcing music creators to accept such contracts, which enforce a one-time payment in exchange for their rights.

Given the worldwide popularity of shows and series on platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Disney etc., and their replay value, the audiovisual market represents an important revenue stream for creators. Soundtracks alone are part and parcel of series and often attract a similar amount of popularity, massively boosting sales, streams and the worldwide fanbase of their authors.

Read below to find out how video on demand (VOD) platforms and broadcasters are circumventing EU law and what can be done about it.

Policies

Authors’ societies & the collective management model

Authors’ societies are hugely beneficial to both authors (creators), users (platforms and services), and the broader public.

Beyond benefiting these different groups, authors’ societies also support the broader cultural ecosystem by funding and promoting cultural and creative initiatives.

Below are five key benefits to authors’ societies and the collective management model.

Policies

The Copyright Directive

In April 2019, the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market was formally adopted, a change that will positively transform authors’ rights throughout the EU. Each member state now has until 7 June 2021 to transpose the Directive into their respective national law.

This reform is an opportunity to address pressing issues for authors in the Digital Single Market and will promote the growth of Europe’s creative and cultural industries (CCIs) – a major driver of Europe’s economy.

One of the biggest achievements of this new piece of legislation was to address the
‘Transfer of Value’ problem, a priority issue for all European creators.

Below are some of the Directive’s key areas that will affect creators and those who profit from their work.