Victory and Unity of the Georgian Artists on IPOA-platform
In 1997 Georgian folk song “Chakrulo” – one of the classic pieces of Georgian polyphonic folk song was sent into space…. Late “Chakrulo” was recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Heritage masterpiece. This is Georgia, the country which has repeatedly fascinated the world with its culture gifted artists…
music, film, theater, literature – various fields of art and product created with talent, which represents intellectual property of artists and in many cases requires protection. Amid the process of development of the globalization and digital world, protection of intellectual property becomes a significant challenge for the world, for Georgia as well. Georgian culture is the part European civilization and introduction of international standards is always a priority for Georgia.
The story began with the adoption of the Law in 1999, which remained unchanged till 2023 and granted uncontrolled authority to the only copyright association – GCA… Dissatisfaction accumulated over 25 years and lots of not responded questions, has pushed the Georgian artists to changes…
As a result, a huge group of artists appealed to the Culture Committee of the Georgian Parliament with a request to pay due attention to the acting law in the field of copyrights and amend it in line with international standards …
In parallel to the working on the daft bill, artists get to know the report of an independent auditing company, according to which the embezzlement of large amounts of royalties of GCA authors-performers has been determined.
The audit report reveals that a major part of GCA administrative cost is inappropriately high employee benefits. For example, In 2021 an employee of the association, who is occupied on one of the leading posts (it refers presumably to the director – Giga Kobaladze) in 2021 it was 86 7990 GEL in favor of 656 recipients, so the mentioned Giga’s benefits equal to more than 1/4 of payments to all national right holders together (that includes the salary GEL 150 000, premium GEL 6 250, bonus GEL 25 000 and benefit GEL 51 812, that in its turn covers the cost of education abroad –GEL 28 086, business trip amount beyond the normative – GEL 19 417, insurance fee –GEL 2 921, cost of a gift voucher –GEL 188 and the cost of vehicle use – GEL 1 200). While in 2022, benefit of Kobaladze significantly increased and reached In 2022 the total amount paid out by GCA to national right holders (696 recepients) was 1 005 311 GEL – so Giga’s benefits constituted more than 1/3 of that amount! It should be noted that a large amount of this sum covered the expenses for Kobaladze’s education. The cost of his education exceeded the monthly income of the famous Georgian composer Nunu Gabunia.
The audit report confirmed the suspicions of the Georgian artists with respect to GCA and this fact even more outlined the need for changes to be made to the draft law. The Culture Committee of Georgia in cooperation with international experts of USAID and CLDP amended the draft law and significant changes in the copyrights law and related laws went into force. It was the first step of Georgia to tackle the challenges in the field of copyright that was targeted at regulating CMOs in accordance with international standards.
During the process of changes the focus was made on a transparent and fair system of collecting and allocating royalties.
On the basis of the new law, Sakpatenti (The National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia) announced a competition, which allowed the participation of the associations whose governance system would be in line with the requirements of the new law. Due to the complete lack of confidence on part of the authors, GCA failed to register the new statute of the association and therefore could not participate in the competition. Recently, an investigative service of the Ministry of Finance entered the office of GCA. Documentation and electrical equipment have been removed. The investigation into the possible misappropriation of a large amount of author-performers’ funds has been launched. Author-performers are suing Kobaladze for 14 million. On the basis of an appeal of the investigative service of the Ministry of Finance, accounts of GCA have been frozen and Georgian artists are impatiently waiting for the end of the investigation with the anticipation that justice will be restored.
IPOA, the winner of Sakpatenti competition, which was founded by the authors themselves in order to protect their rights, serves as a guarantor of protection of rights of the Georgian artists in the field of copyright. The management system is completely adjusted to European standards, since for Georgia as an EU candidate country each reform that brings the country closer to European experience and standards is of high importance. Hence, an experienced German expert Stephan Shultz- enchanted by Georgia and Georgian talent, one of the founders of Universal Mobile, who headed Convert Media and Sony Music for years- is one of the top managers of IPOA and is willing that Georgian artists became known throughout the world:
“The world should know the talent of Georgia ” – Stefan Shulze
The aforementioned changes brought a ray of light into the field of copyright and Georgian artists hope that the field will develop and it will be regulated. The process has developed faster and today, IPOA unites 99% of registered artists in Georgia.
“It turned out that we can live in a different way, have much time for art, a musician can have time for music, an artist for painting, a director for films or plays. Surprisingly, there is a way to finance your own ideas with your own creativity”. – Kakha Tsabadze
IPOA victory served as a victory of authors in the fight against the unjust regime and a beginning of a dignified
era, where justice and transparency are the main values which will never be betrayed. More than 2000 artists, united on one platform, are observing the ongoing changes with hope and are expecting support of international associations so that no one can violate their fights in future while Georgian culture and creative work of Georgian artists shall be integrated into the world with due honor.
