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UNESCO’s Copyright Day -- CISAC has Released 3 Short Films on Authors’ Rights on CISACTV
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Paris – On the occasion of UNESCO’s World Book and Copyright Day (4/23), WIPO’s World Intellectual Property Day (4/26) and the 300th anniversary of the world’s first copyright law—Britain’s Statute of Anne (4/10), CISAC has released 3 amusing short films about authors’ rights on its Dailymotion channel, CISACTV (www.dailymotion.com/CISACTV).
Available in French, English, Spanish and German, the animated films ask “What is a creator?”, “What is a creative work?” and “What is an authors’ society?”
CISAC’s mission is to serve and defend the interests of creators from all artistic genres and their societies worldwide. As new technologies bring the debate on copyright, authors’ rights and collective management into the public spotlight, it has become clear that there is a real need to move away from the legal terminology often used to explain these nuanced concepts and engage the public through fresher approaches. By keeping the tone humorous and light, this series of 3-minute films focuses on the creator, showing that authors’ rights are not about corporate interests but an individual human being’s rights.
In his April 20 speech to the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland conference, CISAC’s President Robin Gibb emphasized the importance of raising awareness of authors’ rights within the general public. “In recent years, many have attacked copyright as being a roadblock to the digital utopia that we have been promised by the rise of the Internet. In many cases this criticism is motivated by the desire of certain people to take what they want without having to pay for it,” said Gibb. “Yet opinion polls demonstrate that most consumers are overwhelmingly on the side of creators. We must pay heed to this. Authors’ rights are human rights, and rights that are protected in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. They must be closely identified with the individual creator in the minds of the public if they are to be respected.”
Written and directed by Anne Jaffrennou, Joris Clerté and Joyce Colson and produced by French authors’ societies SACD, SACEM and SCAM, CISAC licensed the films to bring them to an international audience. CISAC’s 225 members in 118 countries will be able to integrate the films into their own outreach campaigns.
CISAC, serving authors worldwide
Presided by Robin Gibb of the legendary Bee Gees and award-winning Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, CISAC – the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers – aims to increase both the recognition and protection of creators’ rights worldwide. As an international not-for-profit organisation, CISAC’s fundamental role is to enable authors’ societies to seamlessly represent creators across the globe and, in particular, to assist them in ensuring that royalties flow to authors for the use of their works anywhere in the world. CISAC’s main missions are to reinforce the international network of copyright societies, to be their spokesperson in all international debates and to reassert authors’ inalienable right to live by their creative work.
Through the 225 authors’ societies from 118 countries that it counts as members, CISAC indirectly represents more than 3 million creators and publishers of artistic works in all artistic genres (music, drama, literature, audiovisual, photography and the visual arts).
In 2008, the royalties collected by CISAC's member societies in their respective territories topped €7.035bn. www.cisac.org
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