CISAC Summit Highlights Creators’ Role in Bringing Value to Global Commerce

Posted in News on June 12, 2013

Day one of the CISAC World Creators Summit on June 4, 2013, in Washington, D.C., covered many diverse topics centering around intellectual property rights in the digital age and the future of the creative community. An address by Maria Pallante, U.S. Register of Copyrights, stressed the importance of “the well-being of authors and the help of the creative industries that support them.” Pallante also highlighted the value of creative content to our culture, commerce and progress and how today’s legislation, including copyright reform, must provide all creators with incentives, protections and remedies.

During day two of the Summit on June 5, Richard Conlon, Broadcast Music, Inc.’s Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Communications & New Media, and other panelists including Amanda Harcourt, IP Consultant; Christopher Harrison, Assistant General Counsel, Pandora; Laurent Hubert, President Creative and Marketing, BMG Chrysalis; and Ralph Peer, CEO, Peermusic, discussed collective vs. direct licensing, led by moderator Jay Rosenthal, Senior Vice-President & General Counsel, NMPA – National Music Publishers’ Association.

A primary point of the panel discussion focused on publishers who directly license their catalogs to music users, opting out of collective licensing through performing rights organizations, and how that affects smaller rights holders. Topics also included the question of direct licensing’s ability to manipulate the marketplace and the value of music to licensees who now receive access to “bundles” of music through comprehensive licensing agreements, as opposed to negotiating with individual licensing sources directly. All of the panelists, along with other Summit participants, agreed on the value that music brings to global commerce.

During the Summit, BMI composer Alan Menken, who wrote the music for many of Walt Disney’s most successful movies, gave a memorable performance at a cocktail party hosted by all three U.S. performing rights organizations.

SOURCENews TAGS Musical Theatre Washington, D.C. Advocacy Rights Management Alan Menken Ralph Peer