CISAC strengthens ties with the United Nations

17 Oct 2018 - 15:40

President of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) Jean-Michel Jarre recently met with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in New York.

International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) met with the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

CISAC's Board Chairperson Eric Baptiste and its Director General Gadi Oron were also present at the meeting.

A confederation of over 230 CMOs in 121 countries, CISAC oversees and encourages international exchanges on behalf of creators to ensure that royalties flow from one side of the world to the pockets of creators on the other.

The meeting, according to a CISAC statement, focused on the body’s "global role in promoting economic and cultural development and the power of creators as an engine for economic growth."

Also on the agenda was the need for "increased protections" for content producers working in the digital space where new challenges are replacing old ones.

To this end, says CISAC, the "delegation explored ways in which UN institutions can put greater focus on the promotion of creators’ rights and interests online with the Secretary-General, as well as how creators’ protections can be integrated into the UN’s 2030 agenda for sustainable development." The meeting also broached ways in which CISAC can contribute to "goals related to work and economic growth as well as promoting inclusive and sustainable innovation technology".

Last month, CISAC dropped in on the Bureau Marocain du Droit d’Auteur (BMDA) in Morocco. "The visit’s goal was to fine-tune the society to more efficiently serve both domestic and international authors," says CISAC.

Due to the fast-changing nature of content creation, collective management organisations (CMOs) have had to rework the old methods of collecting. This reworking can be either "processing more data to standardising and internationalising business processes to facilitate international data and financial exchanges. The latter of which means a creator in one country can, for example, receive payment for streams of their work in another country."

The visit provided the BMDA with tools to enhance collection with the result being "Moroccan and international authors received their money faster than before, a feat for Western Saharan Africa."