“Globalization has seen a growing number of technological giants with immense power to obtain creative content at low cost. Cisac calls on governments to create this right: to channel the fair value of creative works to creators who created them and not to digital platforms that exploit legal gaps in order to earn money, “said the composer and great pianist Jean-Michel Jarre, President Of CISAC, at the closing ceremony of the general assembly of that confederation, on the 8th of June, having as host and co-organizer SPA, which had in this act and in all those acts that during a week involved and completed it, one of the high moments its history and the fulfillment of its mission, giving the best of its abilities and energies for the struggle and the unity of the authors of the whole world.
More than 250 delegates from all over the world attended these days in Lisbon participating in the various events organized by CISAC and intensely supported by SPA. It were days of joy, combativeness and hope that SPA, CISAC and the authors of the world will not forget.
On the initiative of SPA, the members of CISAC’s board of directors were received in the afternoon of the 6th by the mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, and the Councilor for Culture, Catarina Vaz Pinto. José Jorge Letria, who introduced the confederation, the leaders and the overall objective of the organization, and Fernando Medina, who spoke about the secular history of Lisbon and its capacity to receive the difference, the best of culture of all origins and of solidarity and openness to the world and to dialogue between cultures and civilizations.
On the night of the 6th, SPA promoted a great show at the Teatro da Trindade which was attended by Ivan Lins, Paulo de Carvalho, Solange Cesarovna, Luís Caracol, Biru, Danilo Caymi, Selma Uamusse and Júlio Pereira.
It was an unforgettable moment of celebration of the value of Lusophony, a bridge launched by SPA for communication between societies and authors and artists of the Lusophony countries. The more than 200 people present applauded the quality and the musical importance of the event, which stood out as a top, affectionate and mobilizing moment of this great world event.
Everyone were aware of the importance of the Portuguese language as an instrument of communication capable of uniting wills, energies and various forms of creativity.
On the evening of the 7th, SPA offered to almost three hundred delegates from dozens of countries and several continent a dinner show at the Páteo Alfacinha in Lisbon, which counted on the performances of Sara Paixão and Rodrigo Costa Félix and the Brazilians Juca Novaes and Danilo Caymi. Miguel Honrado, Secretary of State for Culture, who underlined, in his name in the Ministry of Culture, the importance of this great world achievement in Lisbon, the contribution of SPA to the defence of copyright, the importance of the work of Portuguese-speaking cooperation in which the cooperative of the Portuguese authors is betting, and also their conviction that Portugal will continue to have legislation that defends the creative work, the interests of the creators and that strengthens the national and international representativeness of SPA.
During the works of CISAC general assembly on the 8th, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Lisbon, José Jorge Letria, in the dual position of SPA President and President of CISAC European Committee of Authors, welcomed all the participants and stressed the Great importance of this event in the Portuguese capital, which is also Ibero-American Capital of Culture.
The many delegates present made important decisions for the future of CISAC and witnessed the moment when José Jorge Letria, accompanied by António Victorino de Almeida, who came from Brussels for this purpose, handed Jean-Michel Jarre, President of CISAC, the SPA Medal of Honor . At that moment, the writer Fernando Pinto do Amaral, representing the Minister of Culture, Luís Filipe Castro Mendes, made his intervention and praised SPA for hosting this event,with Portugal being “the country flattered and the host country”. He added: “The realization of a policy that defends, values and dignifies our authors and promotes their works, in Portugal and abroad, is also one of the objectives defined in the area of Copyright and, transversally, in all artistic and cultural domains A policy that promotes respect for creators, values creation. Only with this policy the future of culture is built in the way that we believe in. “
During the works of the general assembly, the Capeverdian Music Society, presided by Solange Cesarovna, was unanimously approved for the normal and transitional period of one year. SPA recognizes the importance of this act and renews its interest and availability to support the work SCM from Cape Verde to defend the authors of the country, many of them scattered around the world with wide recognition of the quality of their works.
It was also decided that the general assembly of CISAC in June 2018 will be in held Warsaw, the capital of Poland.
“The top of CISA’s priorities,” said Jean-Michel Jarre in his final speech, is the global campaign of legislation to address “transfer of value” in music. This is a market distortion that allows some of the main digital services in the world to create huge creator-based businesses while paying them very little in return. “
Jean-Michel Jarre took the opportunity to praise and encourage SPA’s efforts to carry out its project of boosting cooperation and dialogue among the societies of the various Portuguese-speaking countries, considering this work as a model.
Gadi Oron, director general of CISAC, accompanied by Eric Batiste, executive president of the confederation and leader with great experience, said:
“Societies must have a fair market environment to license their repertoire, but the outlook of today is far from fair, and this anomalous situation must be fixed.” For its part, the president of the SPA added: “For a few days, Lisbon is the copyright capital of the world, welcoming many dozens of authors’ societies from all over the world and recalling clearly and definitively that without Authors there is no culture and that the effort of the legislators should advance in order to guarantee to the creators the just and due remuneration of their work and the recognition of their struggle to create a world more supportive, more human and luminous.”
Important meetings of the International Council of Music Authors (CIAM) and Writers an Directors Wolrdwide (WDW) were also held during this week, whose Board SPA integrates, as it intgrates the European Group of Societies of Authors, with Headquarters in Brussels.
CISAC’s Board praised SPA’s welcome spirit and the co-organization effort, and recognized the quality of Lisbon and considered this General Assembly to be one of the most interesting and memorable general assemblies in CISAC’s recent history. At the same time dozens of meetings took place between societies from various countries and continents, a process involving SPA with its Brazilian partners from UBC and ABRAMUS and other societies that want to develop an exemplary work of extended cooperation with Portugal, which had a special and unique life-time moment this week, evidencing great maturity and strategic sense. There were also important initiatives and debates, with lecturing purposes, in Lisbon, in particular with the most important Latin American societies.
José Jorge Letria | Chairman of the Board of Directors
