CISAC Announces Launch of CIS Net Using FastTrack Technology
 Shown at the announcement are Claude Gaillard, SACEM Director and the FastTrack Admninistrator, FastTrack Managing Director Chris van Houten, SACEM Chief Execuctive Bernard Miyet, who also serves at the Vice Chair of FastTrack and a member of the CISAC Executive Bureau, and CISAC Secretary General Eric Baptiste. Photo: Robbin Ahrold for FastTrack |
Under CISAC's Common Information System (CIS), authors' societies will soon be able to search musical information coming from all corners of the globe, with each authors' society making its domestic repertoire available to its sister societies via the CIS network.
 Senior executives from the FastTrack member societies gather after the press conference announcing CISAC's adoption of FastTrack technology |
The Executive Bureau of CISAC and the Supervisory Board of FastTrack have agreed on the adoption of the FastTrack software, systems, and data protocols to implement the CIS Net. The agreement calls for FastTrack to supply a turn-key infrastructure to some of the CISAC societies. An agreement in principle was initialed by CISAC and FastTrack executives at MIDEM.
Once FastTrack's GDDN technology is in place, CISAC members will be able to perform real-time searches through CIS Net, allowing them to find musical information concerning any musical work, anywhere in the world, at any time of day. As a result, CIS Net will allow for faster and more accurate and efficient processing, allowing CISAC members to respond to the increasingly global diffusion of musical works.
"This agreement is the fruit of two clear visions - a pioneering vision from FastTrack in developing efficient technology for the collective management of authors' societies, and the intelligent and opportune vision of CISAC for adopting the technology as a world-wide standard for authors' societies, which operate in an increasingly globalized market," said Eduardo Bautista, President of CISAC's Executive Bureau.
"This agreement establishes FastTrack's approach to international data management for musical works as the de facto world standard. It enables all authors' societies, regardless of size, to enjoy the benefits of a single worldwide architecture for data management in the 21st century. The FastTrack member societies are pleased, through this agreement, to share the benefits of FastTrack technology and business systems with the global community of authors' societies," said Bernard Miyet, Vice-Chair of FastTrack and Chief Executive of FastTrack and CISAC member society SACEM.
"This marks a major step in the CIS plan, as the interconnection of authors' societies will promote the status of creators and their works throughout the globe. The FastTrack technology will help authors' societies meet the new challenges of the digital age, where real-time data will be necessary to ensure a quick and efficient exchange of information about works. In addition, this landmark achievement with the musical repertoires will allow CISAC to target the connection of its other represented repertoires, such as literary and audio-visual works," said Eric Baptiste, Secretary General of CISAC.
"This link between the CIS Net and our network will be the first step in the construction of a complete international data network for musical creators that has become an urgent priority in our digital global environment. It will allow more transparency and more efficiency in the day-to-day business of collecting societies, and it offers the additional promise of accelerating the distribution of royalties to authors throughout the world," said FastTrack Managing Director Chris van Houten.
CISAC
CISAC works towards increased recognition and protection of creators' rights and manages the international standards and tools used by its members in the digital age. Through its 209 member societies in 109 countries, CISAC represents over 2 million authors and composers of musical, dramatic, literary, audio-visual, graphic and visual art works world-wide. CISAC has its headquarters in Paris and three regional offices, in Singapore, Budapest, and Buenos Aires.
FastTrack
FastTrack is the alliance of eleven leading copyright societies: AKM/Austro-Mechana (Austria), BMI (United States), BUMA-STEMRA (Netherlands), GEMA (Germany), MCPS-PRS Alliance (United Kingdom), SABAM (Belgium), SACEM (France), SGAE (Spain), SIAE (Italy), SOCAN (Canada) and SUISA (Switzerland). Launched in 2000, its principal purpose is to develop and harmonize digital tools for 21st century management for author's rights throughout the globe. FastTrack has already made important advances in the digital realm in the processes of registration, documentation and licensing of works. Its projects are based on a global model of information networks that utilize the Internet to connect resources.
International Data Networks
Several authors' societies have already made their repertoires available to regional nodes in Asia and the Americas or to CISAC's world-wide musical works database known as the WID. While the nodes have done much to facilitate and hasten the transmission of musical information between regional societies, CISAC aims to see all of its societies - regardless of size and technological resources - have access to a worldwide database of works. In the first stage of the CIS Net plan, these regional nodes will become interconnected through the use of the FastTrack GDDN (Global Documentation and Distribution Network). Member societies who have yet to make their domestic repertoires available may choose to link to an existing node, implement the FastTrack tool, or make their works directly available to CIS Net by developing their own tools according to the GDDN protocol. In addition, FastTrack will provide further development and maintenance of the software and business tools necessary to maintain CIS Net.
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