Public discussion on Draft law on copyright and related rights it started on March 16 and will last until April 6. There were no filmmakers among those who wrote it, because the proposer of this law, the Ministry of Economy of Serbia, did not include them in the Working Group that dealt with the Draft.
The filmmakers will, of course, participate in the public debate, but, having learned from the mentioned experience, they do not expect that their remarks made at the Public Debate will be respected.
That is why they are trying to point out the wrong statements in the Draft Law on Copyright to the public.
Facade law
Executive Board Serbian Screenwriters Association sent an open letter to the public in which he says that "at first glance, this Draft gives the impression of a modern act harmonized with the standards of the European Union. However, the Law uses European terminology, but does not introduce European standards of protection - it rests on the logic of contracts and voluntary instructions, and not on the logic of binding rules that protect creators as actors with a weaker negotiating position. It is a 'facade law' that does not offer the essential legal certainty required by EU directives."
They state that the copyright is on sale. The law protects authors when someone privately copies a film, "but leaves them completely unprotected in the free market." This means that "the state legalizes a practice in which the creator is left with nothing while others profit from his work."
Screenwriter Ivan Velisavljević explains for "Vreme" what it looks like with an example.
"This Draft allows the producer to buy the screenplay for an agreed amount, but later, when the film goes into distribution, the producer can make millions on it and the screenwriter nothing, because the law does not provide for distribution compensation. This Draft does not protect filmmakers."
The EU guarantees fair compensation
Velisavljević reminds that "proportionate fair compensation is guaranteed in the European Union, the percentages differ from country to country, but they exist everywhere. And nowhere can a creator not receive compensation for his work except here. Although this Draft was made in order to harmonize with the EU, that did not happen. It only imitates European terminology, but ignores the essence of European directives."
"The EU requires that compensation to authors be adequate and proportionate to the economic value of the work. Our draft reduces that right to the level of a statistical error," points out Ivan Velisavljević.
A law that does not see the future
Then, he writes in an open letter from the screenwriter, "it is a Law that does not see the future. We live in an era artificial intelligence which feeds on our work. This Draft does not offer any protection to authors against the unauthorized use of their works for the development of AI models, thus leaving us completely unprotected from the technological giants".
"As far as is known, the Government of Serbia is not preparing any special law that would regulate the abuse of AI, so that area was skipped by the draft. Creators do not have any protection against those who, for example, take someone's music, modify it using AI and sign it. This is another pro-forma law because it does not protect those for whom it is intended," says Ivan Velisavljević.
The open letter warns that "this is not just a screenwriter's problem. This is an attack on the dignity of all creative workers in Serbia."
Cleverly packaged stagnation
"We invite visual artists, composers, writers, photographers and all other creators to join us in this fight. Our goal is simple: that the compensation we receive truly reflects the real economic effect of our work. Our creation must not become a cheap resource to fill other people's budgets."
They conclude that "this draft law is not a step forward - it is skillfully packaged stagnation. With the detailed analysis that we have prepared with our European colleagues, and which we will present to the public, we will show that Serbia deserves a law that protects people who create culture, not only those who trade in it".
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