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1 September 2020

The annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Confederation of Rightholders' Societies of Europe and Asia (CRSEA) was held online. During the event, the Presidium of the organization was elected; the President and Director General were appointed. Moreover, four new members have joined CRSEA.

Thus, the national artist of Azerbaijan, Rector of the National Conservatory of the Republic of Azerbaijan Siyavush Kerimi became the new CRSEA President; the statesman of Armenia, who served as Deputy Minister of Culture from 2005 to 2018, Artur Poghosyan, was elected as the new Director General.

In addition, four new organizations have been added to the list of the Confederation member states. The participants of the General Assembly unanimously voted for CRSEA to be joined by the organizations "Amanat" and the "Eurasian Union of Right Holders" from Kazakhstan, China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) and the Public Association of Copyright and Related Rights Owners of Uzbekistan (UASO).

Belarus was represented at the meeting by the Head of the Copyright and Related Rights Department of the National Center of Intellectual Property (NCIP) Alexander Denisman and the Chairman of the Board of the Belarusian Society of Authors, Performers and Other Right Holders (BOAIP) Sergei Kukhto.

According to CRSEA Secretary General Andrei Krichevsky, in 2019 the total amount of remuneration collected by the collective management organizations in the CRSEA amounted to 159.05 million euros, which is 4% higher than in 2018.

In terms of international cooperation, a significant breakthrough was noted in the issue of interaction with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). “We participated in the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, in working meetings both at the level of the creative industries sector and personally with WIPO Director General Dr. Francis Gurry. Digital services for the copyright enforcement were presented, as well as the agreement on the information exchange and technological cooperation was reached. In addition, we are actively working in the technological field. In Russia, partly in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, the integration of the automated system of remuneration collection and payment "Hypergraph" continues. We introduce machine learning mechanisms and expand functionality of our products,” stressed A.Krichevsky.

The meeting participants put forward a number of initiatives and talked about how the pandemic affected copyright fees and the challenges faced by collective management organizations.

The representative of NCIP, Alexander Denisman, urged to take all necessary measures to prevent the drop in deductions. He called interaction with digital platforms one of the most promising areas of NCIP activities. According to him, the organization he represents has become more active in the courts and is entering a completely new stage: “This is the level of so-called “complex” cases involving the use of audiovisual services”.


The Chairman of the Board of BOAIP Sergei Kukhto proposed to establish an award named after the first President of CRSEA, composer Oleg Molchan: “This will enable us to mark the most active members and partners of CRSEA for their work aimed at promotion and enforcemnt of authors’ rights”.

Based on the TASS materials.

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