Republic of Türkiye

[TR] Turkish Federation of Film Authors’ Collecting Societies Established

IRIS 2008-7:1/32

Eda Çataklar & Gül Okutan Nilsson

Intellectual Property Research Center, Istanbul Bilgi University

In Turkey, there are four collecting societies in the field of audio-visual works. These are SESAM (Turkish Film Authors’ Collecting Society), SINEBIR (Film Authors’ Collecting Society), SETEM (Film and Television Works Authors´ Collecting Society) and BSB (Documentary Filmmakers’ Society). The members of these collecting societies are authors of films, who are defined in the Turkish Law of Intellectual Artistic Works as the director, scriptwriter, dialogue writer, composer of original music and animator. Before 1995, the law designated the producers as the authors of films. Currently producers are not authors but related rights holders (for details of this change in the law, see IRIS 2008-5: 19).

Traditionally, producers had a strong position in the film industry, which motivated the directors and other film authors organise themselves into one institution, in order to strengthen their position in the business. A new and important development to this end is the recent decision of the above mentioned four collecting societies to come together under one federation, called the “Federation of Film Authors’ Collecting Societies”. The decision was made public at the end of April 2008.

The Federation’s main goal is to provide an effective promotion of the common interests of film authors in Turkey. The Federation will serve to defend the rights of film authors vis-à-vis producers, to fight against piracy, to protect the authors’ moral and economic rights under copyright law, to improve occupational training and education, to strive for increased quality in national films and to strengthen the international relations of the Turkish film industry. The collecting societies also underline that uniting under one institution will discipline the industry and facilitate communication between the various actors.

Currently the Turkish film authors’ collecting societies do not have an effective collective rights management system. One of the priorities of the forthcoming Federation shall be the setting-up of a common tariff for collecting copyright fees. Regarding other activities, the Federation aims to establish an archive of Turkish films, to support film productions and to organise film festivals.

The four film authors’ collecting societies have also signed a gentleman’s agreement regarding the management of the forthcoming Federation. According to this, each of the four societies shall have an equal number of representatives on the board of directors and other boards. The presidency shall rotate between the members in one-year terms. The Federation shall be represented by joint signatures of a representative of each member society. The members shall form joint opinions on relevant issues and will abstain from expressing individual opinions.