KopinorNews 2004-1

No. 1 Volume 8
Summer 2004
ISSN 1500-0729

Kopinor’s AGM 2004

Field of activity redefined

At Kopinor’s Annual General Meeting 2004, the bye-laws were adjusted and revised, bringing about a new definition of Kopinor’s field of activity.

According to the revised bye-laws, Kopinor’s purpose is to secure the economic and moral rights of rightsholders through managing their rights “whenever it is impossible or impracticable for them to manage their rights themselves”. Previously the scope of Kopinor’s activites were limited to “copyright protected works which are subject to copying and other forms of secondary use”. The bye-laws now also refer to “copyright protected works and performances”, allowing Kopinor to expand its activities to include the management of the rights of performing artists or producers, if feasible.

Results 2003
Kopinor’s income in 2003 totalled NOK 194,8 million (€ 23 m./US$ 29 m.). This represents a 4,8 % decrease on the 2002 income, mostly due to the exceptionally high collections from the Church of Norway in 2002.

In 2003, Kopinor distributed NOK 131,8 million (2002: 184,3 million) to Norwegian rightsholders through its member organisations and NOK 42,6 million (27,8 million) to foreign rightsholders.

Re-election
The annual general meeting re-elected Professor Helge Rønning as Chairman of Kopinor’s Executive Board.

Universities and colleges

Kopinor opposes IP committee recommendation

Late last year the Norwegian Council for Higher Education's Intellectual Property Committee submitted a recommendation on copyright-related issues at universities and colleges.

While providing a good review of the legislative status in this field at the national and international levels, the recommendation criticised various aspects of the collective management of rights in Norway. Among its proposals was the establishing of an arbitration tribunal in the event the educational institutions and the rightsholders should fail to reach agreement. Today, the Copyright Act only provides for mediation in such cases.

In a letter to the Norwegian Council for Higher Education, Kopinor opposes such a solution as it would curtail the independent negotiating rights of the rightsholders, and refutes the recommendation on a number of other points.

Agreements prolonged
All public and private universities and university colleges have signed reprographic rights agreements based on a model agreement negotiated with the Norwegian Council for Higher Education. The agreements were recently prolonged and will continue to apply until 30 June 2006.

Malawi

COSOMA signs landmark agreement

The Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) has signed its first reprographic agreement, with Malawi College of Accountancy.

Sitting, from left: COSOMAs Executive Director Serman Chavula and principal Albert Kuwenda. Standing, from left: E. B. Tomdozi, MCA Director, Greenfield Chilongo, Executive Director of ZimCopy, Zimbabwe and John-Willy Rudolph, Kopinor. (Photo: Rosario Kamanga)

Kopinor congratulates COSOMA with this landmark achievement in March 2004. COSOMA’s reprographic rights project is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is supported and supervised by Kopinor. COSOMA is negotiating reprographic licenses with a number of users in different sectors. COSOMA is a multi-purpose collecting society and is involved in licensing of musical performing rights and mechanical rights. COSOMA plans to build an office block in Lilongwe for themselves and their member organisations. At its June meeting, Kopinor’s Executive Board decided to fund a substantial part of this office project through Kopinor’s Development Fund. Kopinor will also during the coming two years partially fund a national statistical survey of reprographic copying in Malawi.

Malawi has a population of 12 million.

IFRRO 1984 - 2004

It’s twenty years ago

Not the greatest of anniversaries, but this summer we remember May 1984 and the establishment of IFRRO, then the International Forum of Reproduction Rights Organisations (the forum became a formal federation in Copenhagen in 1988). Now, 20 years after the Oslo meeting, the IFRRO membership totals 39 RRO members and 57 associate members.

Kopinor hosted the IFRRO secretariat from 1984 to 1988, when it moved to the USA and was managed by Copyright Clearance Center. In 1992 a formal secretariat was established at VG WORT’s offices in Munich, Germany. The office is presently located in Brussels, Belgium. (See www.ifrro.org).

Some of the participants at the first IFRRO meeting in Oslo, May 1984. (Photo: John Myhre, Aftenposten)

Far right: Paul Asser, the secretary of IPA/STM Working Group on Copyright Collecting Societies, which evolved into IFRRO at the meeting. Paul Asser coined the name IFFRO. (Photo: John Myhre, Aftenposten)

Editor-in-Chief: John-Willy Rudolph
Editor: Trond Smith-Meyer