Documents Archive Address by Cathaoirleach at IMRO AGM 1998
Welcome
It's great to see so many of you here today and I want to thank you for taking the time and interest to attend. IMRO is your organisation and it is extremely important that, as far as possible, your views are taken into account in how it is run. It is equally important that you, the members, are given as much information as possible on what IMRO is doing and why.
This the first AGM where I am speaking to you as Cathaoirleach and I can genuinely tell you that it gives me great pleasure to speak to you in this capacity. IMRO has achieved remarkable results during 1997 and we have many exciting new plans to advise you about for the future.
Brendan Graham
Before doing so, I would like to say a few words about my predecessor, Brendan Graham. Brendan was the first Cathaoirleach of IMRO and I can tell you that Irish music and its industry owe a great debt of gratitude to him. His achievements during his nine years leading IMRO were very significant. Without his leadership, vision and downright hard work, we would not have the national society that competes with the best in the world and towers over most.
Brendan, I want to thank you on behalf of all in IMRO, including all the members, and wish you well with the many exciting projects that I know we will all be hearing about in the next few months.
IMRO Annual Report
I hope you have had an opportunity to look through the IMRO Annual Report. You will have seen the many ever improving results. In particular, you will have noticed that total income has increased by 11%, despite the fact that the dispute with the VFI was not resolved until the end of 1997. I know that we can look forward to even better results for 1998 as a result of that agreement, details of which are in the annual report. I don't want to spend too much time on the "numbers" as I am sure you have been through them yourselves. I will be happy to expand on any area you wish. I think it's very encouraging to note that in 1988 which was the last year PRS operated as the licensor in Ireland we had 7,915 customers, we now have a total number of 22,289 customers licensed to pay us royalties. I think this threefold increase is an amazing achievement.
Distribution - Increased & Prompt Payments
I would now like to address the issues that concern you more directly. On the distribution side, IMRO has made great strides in increasing the total amount that has been distributed to its members. For the last distribution 982 IMRO paid royalties to 599 members, an increase of 128 from 471 members. We have done this faster than any other society in the world!
The other European societies have been criticised by EU officials in relation to competition for excessive delays in distributing income due to other societies.
It's very interesting to note that we are the only society to send to its members royalties from overseas as soon as they are received from the overseas societies. I know that these societies are far from perfect in their distribution practices, but you will have read in the report that we are constantly fighting this issue on your behalf. We will persist until acceptable practices are in place.
IMRO Helping Its Members
We all know how difficult it is to succeed in this business, but IMRO is taking a very pro-active approach to support and help you all in this regard. As well as being a dynamic organisation in the areas of collecting and distributing of royalties, IMRO has and will continue, to launch various initiatives to enhance songwriting and composing skills. We hold workshops and seminars to help people understand more clearly the complexities of this business. We will continue to support members to exploit opportunities that exist nationally and internationally in promoting their music.
We are now major sponsors of nearly every song contest and music competition throughout the country. We are providing direct support to those members who want to travel to the various international music trade fairs throughout the world and we will continue to bring to Ireland those experts that can help us all to improve our business, whether in the area of composition, business contacts or other opportunities. In addition, we are working very hard with the European Commission to ensure that any music support programmes that they might introduce will be of direct benefit to all our members.
Eamon Shackleton is now Vice President of the European Music Office, which is a pan-European body working with the Culture Directive of the European Commission.
Data Clean Up
You will be aware that IMRO is in the process of cleaning up its database of works. This is necessary to ensure that full and accurate information on all works is available prior to the introduction of the ISWC (International Standard Works Code).
When we became independent we got 7 different databases from PRS. Most of the works were duplicated or copied within this range of databases. With the introduction of the CIS (Common Information System) only our database will exist worldwide with only one works code for each work, just as each member has one CAE No.
This is a tedious and painful process of amending and correcting your information. IMRO has extra resources in place to help you to help us to complete this work. This will only succeed if you amend the works lists and return them to IMRO as a matter of urgency. To date, 500 members have responded and had their works lists amended. We need to have this work completed by the end of the year.
Increase in Membership
I am delighted to see that the total membership of IMRO increased last year and now stands at over 2,200 - almost 100% increase over 1995, when we became fully independent from PRS. I hope that the elimination of the application fee for publishers will further stimulate more membership. You will have seen from the EGM at the start of the business today, that it will now be easier for publishers to gain promotion to associate and full membership status. These are very important developments in our drive to improve the profile of Irish music, both here and abroad.
Copyright Legislation
After much talk, promises and speculation, the Government has finally set about dealing with the state of copyright legislation in this country. Some weeks ago they passed into law a short Act dealing with the difficulties that software and record companies had in proving piracy. In the main, IMRO did not have such difficulties, so that piece of legislation has had little effect on the way we do our business.
We recently received a draft of the Government's plans to radically revise copyright legislation generally and we are very concerned with suggestions that the Government would like to exempt from copyright control music performances in non-profit clubs and similar organisations, subject to certain limitations. These proposals are obviously coming from some powerful interest groups who are intent on eroding your rights and your income. Your Board cannot tolerate such measures as they conflict with the Berne Convention and with the GATT Agreement. The draft document admits that copyright is a property right and our position is clear - anyone who uses our music without payment is stealing our property. We will not stand aside and allow such thieving to be legalised. If necessary, we will fight these exemptions through all the civil courts and we will continue the fight as far as the court of human rights.
Andrzej Szczypiorski - New President of World Council of Collection Societies
From time to time it has been popular to attack collection societies as being anti-culture. I know you will all be delighted to learn that Andrzej Szczypiorski has been appointed President of the World Federation of Collecting Societies. Andrzej took part in the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and spent the rest of the war in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
As one of the founding members of the Trade Union, Solidarity, and, later, a Senator in the Upper Parliament of Poland, he was further interned for 2 years for his part in forming the Independent Congress on Polish Culture - he is quite clear on the importance of collection societies.
IMRO Expanding Into Other Areas
I want to repeat again that IMRO is your organisation and it is totally dedicated to providing the best possible copyright administration service, which will include additional areas such as the licensing of mechanical rights, multimedia and Internet rights, including the new right of Communication. You will be receiving full details of this development shortly.
At the recent meeting of the world collection societies, the World Intellectual Property Organisation complimented IMRO on being the first society in the world to use the GATT Agreement to protect its members' rights.
Conclusion
IMRO is committed to helping and supporting you all, to the greatest possible extent. If you think that we can work in a better way or should be doing other things in the interest of Irish music I would urge you to tell us. We are holding a series of members meetings throughout the country in the coming months and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at these meetings. It is only through such exchanges that we can hope to serve you in the most appropriate ways. I thank you if you have already made suggestions on ways we can improve and I look forward to continuing this work in the future. In conclusion I would like to thank the Deputy Chairman, Mike Hanrahan, Chairman of the Finance Committee Donagh Long and my fellow Board Directors for their support and encouragement and on your behalf a special word of thanks to Hugh Duffy, his management team, Eamon Shackleton, Eoin Colley and Adrian Gaffney, Company Secretary Carmel Ryan and all the staff at IMRO for a job well done.
