Suspension of CREDIDAM
Yet another proof of the brutal and unprincipled intrusion of the politics: the Romanian Copyright Office abusively suspended the activity of CREDIDAM (Romanian Center for Performers’ Rights Management).
By Decision no. 6/31st of January 2012, the Romanian Copyright Office (ORDA) temporarily withdrew the operating permit of the Romanian Center for Performers’ Rights Management (CREDIDAM), suspending its collective management activity. The invoked legal basis: the non-compliance with other two decisions (no. 229/04th of August 2011 and no. 304/28th of December 2011). CREDIDAM is ready to assert publicly, with evidence, that the reasons for the suspension are fictitious and that they represent an onerous interest.
In essence, things are as follows:
- Decision no. 229/2011 refers to the compliance with the law by CREDIDAM, within 30 days from the issuance thereof. Conditions for compliance with the law: the start of the negotiations with the televisions (CREDIDAM is now in full arbitration procedure with them) and the start of the negotiations for public communication/ambient (pubs, discos, stores etc.).
CREDIDAM submitted requests to ORDA, on the 02nd of September 2011 and on the 05th of September 2011, save that ORDA did not issue Decisions for the establishment of negotiation commissions, based on the requests submitted by CREDIDAM. Currently, ORDA issued a decision for the suspension of the CREDIDAM activity, although it is obvious that the fault lies with ORDA.
- Decision no. 304/28th of December 2011 was issued after the control pertaining to public communication/ambient, which was completed on the second half of November 2011. Then, the ORDA representatives collected from the headquarters of CREDIDAM copies of a few thousands of documents from the organisation’s database. The purpose was to cover up Decision no. 305, issued on the following day (29th of December 2011), removing off the liability of CREDIDAM the collection for public communication/ambient. The liability for the respective collection was granted immediately, upon request, to the ARAIEX Association (Artists’ Association of Romania), established by Adriana Bahmuţeanu Prigoană. CREDIDAM promptly filed a court action, and the decision of ORDA was suspended by the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
Decisions no. 229 and no. 304/2011 were challenged in court are the trial date thereof was set within 14 days, on the 15th of February 2012.
Very important – In accordance with art. 138, index 3 of Law no. 8/1996: “The Decision may be subject to appeal at the courts of administrative contentious. In case of non-compliance with the final decision, ORDA will temporarily withdraw the notice stipulated in art.125 of the law.” Neither decision is final, all the more so that a trial date was set for them on the 15th of February 2012.
In protest of the working manner of ORDA, all the televisions forming the arbitration commission refused to pay the fee of the 5 arbiters who carry out their activity under ORDA. Such fee currently amounts to Lei 7,500 per arbiter. Moreover, the televisions will challenge the arbitral award in court.
CREDIDAM has already informed the international associations it is affiliated to, because the rights of the foreign and Romanian artists which it represents are now in real danger. In accordance with the bilateral agreements, the external payments should have been made at the beginning of February, and because CREDIDAM is blocked, it cannot collect and distribute the ownership rights owed to the foreign artists.
CREDIDAM is the first Romanian association which performs the management of the intellectual property rights of performers. Established in 1996, with support from the Dutch Government, under the MATRA programme, the association counts more than 11,000 Romanian and foreign members. It is the signatory of 33 international bilateral agreements, entered into with similar associations from Europe and Canada. In Romania, CREDIDAM represents the interests of the foreign performers whose recordings are being used on the territory of our country. The interests of Romanian performers, who are CREDIDAM members, are represented and protected in the countries which signed the bilateral agreements with CREDIDAM.
