Chairmen of VOIS and SAMI (Sweden) met in Moscow

On October 6-7, 2015 a meeting of Chairmen of VOIS and SAMI – the Swedish Society for the collective management of performers’ rights was held in the VOIS office in Moscow. The meeting resulted in signing a bilateral agreement on mutual representation of interests.

Director General of SAMI Stefan Lagrell and Head of International Department of the society Martina Andersson arrived in Moscow to explore the Russian experience in collective management of related rights. The guests were welcomed by VOIS Director General Andrey Krichevsky and his Deputy Erik Valdes-Martines.

VOIS managers told the colleagues from Sweden about the general principles of VOIS’s work and the mechanism of implementing the right of Russian performers to get remuneration for public performance and broadcasting and cable transmission of phonograms published for commercial purposes. During the meeting, the experts discussed a wide range of issues – from the peculiarities of the work of societies for collective management of rights in Russia and Sweden, and the degree of protection of rightholders of the two countries to remuneration distribution system between performers and the procedure for account and registration of the related rights. They addressed the issues of the intellectual property rights management in the digital age and the protection of rightholders’ interests in court as well. The parties exchanged the catalogues of performers, signed an agreement on mutual representation of interests, and developed a plan for its implementation and further cooperation.
VOIS and SAMI collaboration will allow to collect remuneration in favor of Russian performers in Sweden and, respectively, for the benefit of Swedish rightholders on the territory of Russia.

The Swedish society SAMI was founded in 1963 by unions of performers and musicians in order to implement the rights of performers, provided for by the Swedish law and international conventions. SAMI includes more than 30,000 rightholders and cooperates with more than 40 foreign collective management societies, representing the interests of its members in Europe, Asia, North and South America.