KopinorNews 2000-1

No. 1 Volume 4
Autumn 2000
ISSN 1500-0729

Prominent guests:

WIPO delegation visits Norway and Kopinor

Nahla Haidar (Photo: Heidi Wøllo)

At the invitation of the Royal Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Kopinor, a delegation from the World Intellectual Property Organization visited Norway between 13th and 15th of June. The delegation was headed by Ms. Nahla Haidar, Director of WIPO's Copyright Collective Management Division. In the delegation were also Mr. Simon Ouedraogo from WIPO's Cooperation for Development Bureau for Africa and Mr. Victor Nabhan from the Cooperation for Development Bureau for Arab Countries. Mr. Mohammad Batrawi, who heads the Copyright Office of the Government of Palestine, attended the meetings as a special guest.

In addition to talks with the Ministry, the delegation spent one day reviewing Kopinor's operations and licensing methods, and discussing possible cooperation with the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) in Africa and the Arab world with Executive Director John-Willy Rudolph. He holds the position of Chair of IFRRO's Working Group for Africa and the Middle East. The talks were also attended by Ms. Stephanie Faulkner, the Secretary General of IFRRO, who flew in for the occasion.

During their stay the delegation and Mr. Batrawi furthermore visited some of Kopinor's member associations, as well as other Norwegian CMOs (TONO, BONO and Norwaco).

Kopinor's AGM 2000:

13% increase in revenues

• When Kopinor's AGM was held earlier this year, Kopinor's Executive Board announced the best results ever.
• Professor Helge Rønning and publisher Ola Haugen were re-elected as Chair and Vice Chair of the Executive Board.

Kopinor's gross revenues came to NOK 180.8 million (EURO € 22.4 m) in 1999, up 13.3 per cent from NOK 159.6 million in 1998. Net operating expenses were equivalent to 8.9 per cent of gross revenues, down from 9.8 per cent in 1998. In 1999, a total of NOK 130 million (EURO € 16.1 m) was paid to rightsholders in Norway, an increase of NOK 34.5 million from 1998. The share paid to foreign rightsholders also increased, remaining stable at 20 per cent of total distributions.

Kopinor's efforts in 1999 focused largely on the re-negotiation and revision of reprographic reproduction agreements with existing partners and on statistical surveys on reprographic reproduction. Distribution went smoothly, despite a significant increase in disbursements.

Digital Copying Results
On the organisational side, objectives and strategies were reviewed, and member associations were invited to discuss how Kopinor should face the digital challenge. There is now broad consensus that Kopinor should enter into digital copying agreements with users. It is expected that Kopinor's Council of Representatives will make the formal decisions on this matter in its November meeting.

Reprographic Reproduction:

Major licensing dispute unresolved

In our last newsletter in 1999 we announced that there would be "Major Changes in Licensing Schemes in Norway from 2000". We have delayed this newsletter hoping that we would be able to announce the outcome of the ongoing negotiations with the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) regarding a new agreement for copying within education and administration operated by local and regional governments.

Arbitration
However, in August both parties agreed to appeal to Riksmeklingsmannen, an institution similar to the National Arbitration Tribunal in the UK, for assistance. A high court justice was appointed as arbitrator. After hearing out the parties, he proposed a solution on September 26th. While the proposal was accepted by Kopinor, KS decided to reject it. The proposal indicated payment of NOK 86.5 million (EURO € 10.7 m) for copying in 2000, which KS found to be too much.

Possible conflict
If no solution is found, the situation can develop into a full-scale conflict, with prohibition against photocopying of protected works in schools and local and regional government administration.

Kopinor wishes to avoid conflict, and has come up with a new proposal, which KS is considering when this is being written.

New survey results

215 million pages copied in Norwegian schools in 1999

A major element in the negotiations between KS and Kopinor (see previous story) is the copying which takes place in primary and secondary schools. In May Markeds- og Mediainstituttet as made public its report on the 1999 survey of copying in schools.

Comprehensive survey
It is the most comprehensive survey undertaken in Norway so far, and the results must be regarded as extremely reliable. More than 50,000 acts of copying were registered and analysed. The report shows that 36.3% of the total copying is of protected material, a slight decrease from 38.9% in the 1995 survey.

However, the volume of copies of protected material equals 215 million copy-pages, an increase from 193 million in 1995, or 240 pages per pupil in primary schools and 457 pages per pupil in secondary schools. 8.4% is of foreign works. 63.6% of the copies were made from textbooks and general non-fiction books.

Increase for transparencies
Kopinor's licenses also cover transparencies made with books, periodicals, musical scores etc. as source. The survey revealed that 629,000 transparencies were made of protected material in Norwegian schools in 1999, twice as much as registered in 1995. An overview of these and other survey results can be found on Kopinor's website ( www.kopinor.no).

Digital Library Project

Kopinor has withdrawn from the LAURIN-project

and terminated agreement with the National Library of Norway

LAURIN is an acronym for Libraries and Archives Collecting Newspaper Clippings Unified for their Integration into Networks. The project is operated by libraries in six countries, and has received substantial financial support from the EU for the creation of a system for making newspaper clippings available in digital form. (Kopinor gave a presentation of the project at the IFRRO 1999 AGM in Amsterdam.) A central element of the project is to deal with copyright issues through agreements with rightsholders. NLN is responsible for the copyright "work package" of the project and invited Kopinor to assist with this work as a sponsoring partner. When NLN decided to use other material than that which initially was intended for use in the project, and declined a license developed by Kopinor, which would have allowed the testing of a rights clearance scheme, Kopinor saw no alternative to terminating its co-operation agreement with NLN.

Bonus Presskopia & Kopinor:

Bilateral agreement between Sweden and Norway

In January 2000, Bonus Presskopia and Kopinor could celebrate the results of eleven years of at times extremely difficult negotiations and sign a bilateral agreement on cross-border exchange of remuneration. As a result of the agreement Kopinor has paid to Bonus Presskopia NOK 28.8 mill. (EURO € 3.6 m) for copying of Swedish works in Norway between 1985 and 1999. Likewise, Kopinor has received payment for the copying of Norwegian works in Sweden - between 1981 and June 1999. Kopinor began collecting for foreign works in 1985.

International News

Assistance to fledgling RROs in Africa

Through co-operation with NORAD (Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation), Kopinor has secured funding for a three-year start up period of reprographic licensing for ZimCopy in Zimbabwe, and COSOMA in Malawi. Also, Kopinor has provided a grant for the development of a business plan for SOMA, Mozambique. Kopinor is supporting REPRONIG's work with registration and gaining government approval in Nigeria. On September 12th Kopinor participated in the re-launch of Kopiken in Nairobi, Kenya. We would like to end this newsletter with a quotation from Kopinor's 1999 Annual Report:

"A system for the collective management of rights can only be effective if it truly spans the globe. Works from one country are reproduced in other countries. This calls for solidarity among rightsholders."

October 2000
Edited by J.W. Rudolph