Barrios Montenegro Abogados desires to keep you informed about matters we believe that might be of your interest. Accordingly, below you will find a brief description of the latest legislative action carried out in the Colombian Congress regarding the Pepe Sánchez Bill. Last Tuesday, May 23th 2017, the Senate at its fourth full session passed Pepe Sánchez Bill, which means that the only pending instance for this Bill to become an enforceable law is the Presidential approval thereof.
Following are some relevant aspects of the Pepe Sanchez Bill, which will be added to article 98 of Law 23 of 1982:
1. The purpose of the Bill is the recognition in favor of the authors of cinematographic or audiovisual works in general as detailed in the following item, to preserve the right to receive a fair remuneration for acts of public communication of audiovisual work, which includes making it available and its commercial rental.
2. The beneficiaries of this right comprise the following authors of an audiovisual work, as recognized by article 95 of Law 23 of 1982 (i) Director or producer; (ii) Script writers; (iii) music author; (iv) Cartoonist (s) in the case of an animated design.
3. The fair remuneration is payable by the individual or
corporate entity performing the public communication of the
audiovisual work.
The Pepe Sánchez Bill ratifies the legal
presumption of assignment of author's economic rights by the
authors of the audiovisual work mentioned above in favor of the
Producer thereof, except as otherwise provided, and specifically
clarifies that the authors in the exercise of the right recognized
by this Bill, may not prohibit, alter or suspend the production or
normal commercial exploitation of the audiovisual work by the
Producer thereof.
4. Fair remuneration is not included in such assignments of rights made by the authors before the Pepe Sánchez Bill. Therefore, any public communication of an audiovisual work after the enactment of this Bill results in the right to receive the fair remuneration.
5. For the purposes of this Bill, the following will not be understood as public communication: (i) when conducted for strictly educational purposes within educational institutions, provided they do not charge any fees, (ii) when conducted by establishments open to the public using audiovisual work to entertain their workers or whose purpose is not to entertain with the audiovisual work to public consumers for profit or sales.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
