Short presentation :
The Association of European Performers' Organisations, AEPO, was founded in Brussels on 20 May 1994. AEPO merged with ARTIS in November 2004. The new organisation is called the Association of European Performers' Organisations, AEPO-ARTIS.
AEPO-ARTIS represents 29 European performers' collective management societies from 22 countries, 18 of which are established in Member States of the European Union. The other countries represented are Croatia, Norway, Russia and Switzerland.
With different sizes and ages, they totalize some 350.000 performers as members.
In most countries performers' rights are collectively managed for both performers who are members and those who are not members of the collecting societies. Thus globally, the number of performers represented by the 29 member organisations of AEPO-ARTIS can be estimated between 400.000 and 500.000.
The membership of the Association is made up of the following collecting societies:
Austria: LSG
Belgium: URADEX
Croatia: HUZIP
Czech Republic: INTERGRAM
Denmark: GRAMEX and FILMEX
Finland: GRAMEX
France: ADAMI and SPEDIDAM
Germany: GVL
Greece: APOLLON, DIONYSOS and ERATO
Hungary: EJI
Lithuania: AGATA
The Netherlands: NORMA and SENA
Norway: GRAMO
Poland: SAWP and STOART
Romania: CREDIDAM
Russia: ROUPI
Slovakia: OZIS and SLOVGRAM
Slovenia: ZAVOD IPF
Spain: AISGE
Sweden: SAMI
Switzerland: SWISSPERFORM
United Kingdom: BECS
The objectives of AEPO-ARTIS, which is a non-profit making organisation, are set out below:
- to develop and secure wider recognition of the collective administration of performers' rights;
- to further develop collaboration between performers' organisations at a European level in the field of
performers' rights and in the collective administration of these rights;
- to contribute to highlighting the importance of the protection of performers and of the collective administration of their rights;
- to further develop cooperation on European and international agreements, with a special interest in clauses relating to collecting practices.
The Association of European Performers' Organisations has been involved in the PHARE and TACIS programmes of the European Commission, which promote cooperation and offer assistance on intellectual property issues in Central and Eastern European countries and in Russia.
AEPO-ARTIS works, both directly or via its members, on items of national legislation as well as on the content of European directives and international instruments in the field of intellectual property rights.
Since its foundation, the Association has closely followed discussions on new European directives issuing its own legal analyses both in the course of and after such debates.
The Association of European Performers' Organisations participated actively in the WIPO Diplomatic Conferences of December 1996 - where the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) were adopted - and December 2000, where no agreement was found on an instrument protecting performers in the audio-visual field. The Association also participates in the meetings of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights.
As an NGO with observer status, it takes part in all important WIPO meetings with intellectual property rights relevance.
AEPO-ARTIS has also been granted observer status at the Inter-governmental Committee of the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations (Rome Convention).
Any national organisation in Europe that participates in the collective administration of performers' rights may apply to be admitted as a member of AEPO-ARTIS.
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