09. Reasons for Establishing the Ethiopian Copyright and Neighboring Rights Collective Management Organization?

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June 29, 2023

The Copyright and Neighboring Rights Protection Proclamation 410/2004 gives protection for the rights of authors, sound recording producers, composers, painters, broadcasting organizations and other creators. But, the act didn't cover the copyright and neighboring rights collective management society and the royalty issues. In addition, the proclamation never take in the subjects of digital technology and its influence on the copyright industries. Thus, the FDRE government amended the law in 2014 by the name of “a proclamation to amend the copyright and neighboring rights protection proclamation’ by adding different articles which encloses the issues of establishment of collective management, collection and distribution of royalty and others.

Reasons for Establishing the Ethiopian Copyright and Neighboring Rights Collective Management Association;

The first reason is that the right holder is not able to enforce their right personally across and outside the country. Really, it is impossible to enforce the rights of creators in the absence of a collective management society. The other difficulty is licensing third parties to authorize them to use the creative works of the right holder individually.

In order to implement a contemporary copyright and neighboring rights legal system, that is suitable for the growing digital technology ecosystems, establishment of copyright and neighboring rights collective management is mandatory.

Since it is necessary to establish a collective management society, that will manage the rights of their members in an organized manner so that the creative professionals can use their money, time and potential for producing of new works and reduce exertion of their efforts in managing their rights individually. The law grants a favorable environment for right holders can jointly manage their rights.

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