The Argentine Executive submitted to the Chamber of Deputies the Bill of Law on the Basis and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentinians (the ‘Bill’), through which they seek to deregulate the creation of Collective Management Organizations for Copyright and Related Rights, aiming to allow the existence of more than one organization per sector. Additionally, authors shall have the choice of whether or not to be represented by these organizations.
Collective Management Organizations are entities responsible for managing and representing the copyright of groups of right holders belonging to the same industry. In Argentina, existing Collective Management Organizations have the exclusivity of being the only ones authorized to represent copyright of each sector, and they are mostly mandatory.
The Bill stipulates that the existence of a Collective Management Organization with competence over certain rights will not prevent the subsequent authorization of other entities with similar competence. Likewise, copyright holders will have the freedom to choose whether to join a Collective Management Organization or not, and whether to exercise their economic rights individually or through such organization.
In addition, the Bill establishes that the National Copyright Office will be the authority responsible for granting authorization to Collective Management Organizations to operate as such. These organizations will be subject to supervision, inspection and surveillance by the National Copyright Office. Also, Collective Management Organizations will be constituted as non-profit civil associations.
