Monday | 21. July. 2014

PULA PRO: ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION ON COPYRIGHTS HELD

The main focus of the public and professional Round Table Discussion on Copyrights held on Sunday, July 20th, at the Circolo hall, as part of the 61st Pula Film Festival’s Pula PRO industrial programme, organized by the Croatian Film Directors’ Guild (DHFR) and under the auspices of the State Intellectual Property Office (DZIV), was the question of payment of remunerations (royalties) to authors of audiovisual works. The main topic of the discussion was the question of cinematographic copyright and related right, the relationship between the audiovisual community and the public television, and the legal framework related to film and television heritage.

The discussion did not revolve so much around the first and the one-off payment for the production of the agreed work as much as on the payment related to subsequent use and exploitation of the copyright work, be it made by a known or an ‘unknown’ author.

In our country it has become common that authors are very often not copyright owners because when they make job arrangements they are more or less forced to sign contracts renouncing all their claims related to further distribution of their work. This is in fact not just typical of the cinema, the audiovisual field, but it has rather become the standard of the copyright contract “offer” in many domains. But those works, or the right to use those works, still have their owners, mostly producers.

However, many works from our audiovisual heritage are left without owners – they have been lost ‘in paper’ during the privatisation process at the beginning of the 1990s – and royalties are not being paid to anyone, or rather they are paid to persons possessing those works in a physical sense although they are not their legal successors. Money does not end up in the pockets, or accounts, of those who deserve it, but those who are more skilful.

Film makers Lordan Zafranović and Rajko Grlić gave concrete examples. For the last twenty years they haven’t received a dime for presenting their films on television or anywhere in Croatia, irrespective of the fact that in some cases they did not sign unfavourable contracts, but in practice, that means nothing.

‘We, the authors, are crucial! If it weren’t for us, none of this would exist because we make the product! And we are not getting paid for it!’, said Zafranović who, as he claims, was forced to go to court, which is costly, because there is no adequate institutional support.

One of the biggest problems is that the laws are not being respected in practice and that competent state services are not willing to solve the problem because, as competent bodies state, the laws are well regulated and in line with the high EU standards.

The conclusion was that the Croatian Radiotelevision has to regulate the audiovisual authors’ rights and that competent state bodies have to finally determine the assets of the Croatian audiovisual heritage. Moreover, filmmakers’ associations need to initiate the obviously long-term and tedious process – what they have already done – and suggest ways to accomplish the desired goal. The perfectly regulated field of Croatian music industry and arts in which authors have been regularly receiving royalties for years proves that it is possible to regulate this field too.

The round table discussion was attended by Antonio Nuić, president of the Croatian Film Directors’ Association (DHFR), Liljana Kuterovac, director of the State Intellectual Property Office (DZIV), Hrvoje Hribar, director of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), Sanja Ravlić, Croatian Eurimages representative and member of the Croatian Radiotelevision Programme Council, Zoran Bauer, Branko Bauer’s attorney-at-law and successor, Carmen Lhotka, head of the Croatian Film Archives’ Material Protection and Restauration Department of the Croatian National Archives, Tajana Tomić, head of the Independent Office for Copyright and Common Legal Affairs of the DZIV, Nina Obuljen-Koržinek, president of the Croatian Radiotelevision Programme Council, Đurđica Paić, head of the Copyright and Related Rights Department of the Croatian Authors’ Agency, Bojan Čobanić, attorney-at-law, Neven Vučković, attorney-at-law, Martina Petrović, head of the MEDIA Office of the Creative Europe Desk, Vlatka Vorkapić, member of the Board of Directors of the Croatian Film Makers’ Association, Snježana Tribuson, member of the Board of Directors of the Croatian Film Makers’ Association, Bruno Kragić, member of the Croatian Radiotelevision Programme Council and film scholar, Lordan Zafranović, film director, Rajko Grlić, film director, Vinko Grubišić, president of the Board of Jadran Film, Branka Papić, editor at the Croatian Radiotelevision and Damir Radić, film critic.