September of year 2020 saw the Belgrade establishment of the Association of Authors – Organization of Artists of Fine Arts as a voluntary, non-governmental and non-profit association, for the purpose of affirmation of authors and copyright holders of copyrighted fine arts and applied arts works, with the exception of photography works, from the following fields: drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic arts and graphic design.
The idea is that compensation for the authors should be realized primarily through collective exercise of property copyrights from:
• rebroadcasting of works;
• importers, i.e., technical device and empty sound, picture and text recording medium traders;
• from legal and natural entities providing photocopy, i.e., multiplication services for a fee, using similar techniques; and
• resale of works.
Naturally, the realized compensation would be forwarded to the copyright holders by the Association.
At the beginning of November 2022, the Association submitted a request to the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia for the issuance of licence for performing the activity of collective exercise of rights. As legal representatives of the Association, we expect that the procedure should be finalized in the next couple of months, after which the Association would become the eighth organization for collective exercise of copyright and related rights in Serbia.
In fact, ever since its establishment, the Association has organized full copyright services for all of its members, including free legal aid, information on ongoing topics, organization of seminars and exhibitions, publishing ventures and providing social aid to members in the event of material vulnerability.
The Association currently counts several hundred members, including some of the most prominent authors and creators in their respective fields, not only in Serbia but also in the region, including world-renowned authors. Most of the Association’s members have completed art faculties, many of them having obtained masters degrees and PhDs, some of them being professors at fine and applied arts faculties, and some being academicians.
We have been very active in the last six months and we have organized, together with the Association, forums in Novi Sad, Beograd, Šabac, Zrenjanin, Pančevo and many other cities throughout the country to highlight the importance of membership in the Association and taking an active role.
We truly believe and are hopeful of the positive response from the Intellectual Property Office.