“Often at the cost of his own health.” Belarusian composer Oleg Molchan is awarded for copyright protection
Nominated and approved the candidacy of Oleg Molchan, who died on October 26, while he was still alive.
In early September 2019, the National Center of Intellectual Property (NCIP) nominated Oleg Molchan for the award of the World Intellectual Property Organization. And in October in Geneva, where Oleg Molchan was treated at the clinic, his candidacy was approved by WIPO.
The awards of the international organization are given for contributions to cultural, social and economic development in the field of copyright and related rights. The award is also given to authors whose works have been appreciated by contemporaries, and those who have been engaged in the formation of respect for creative activity.
“Oleg Molchan created music for which he was considered a classic during his lifetime,” says his widow, singer Irina Vidova, who received the award on December 11 in Minsk. – A man who, by his own example, often at the cost of his own health, showed that his rights can and should be protected, and the creators should be treated with great respect. But Oleg preferred to do this in a pre-trial order; he considered this a professional issue, not worth of discussion in public. One of the first things to do 10 years ago was the participation of Oleg Molchan in concluding an agreement between ONT and National Center of Intellectual Property (NCIP), which allowed increasing the share of fees in favor of authors…
So it was until 2015, before the case of the rewriting of “Malitva” by the Naka band in the project entitled “Re:Pesnyari”. The composer won the case, and it became a precedent in the country. By the decision of the Supreme Court of Belarus Oleg Molchan was recognized as the sole owner of the exclusive right to the work “Malitva”, and the Court ordered the violators to pay compensation in the amount of 50 basic units.
After that precedent, in 2015 Oleg Molchan was unanimously elected the Chairman of the Authors Council of the National Center of Intellectual Property (NCIP). Among the successes in that field, over the next two years, dozens of cases were won in the Supreme Court against cable TV operators, which for many years did not pay royalties and did not respond to requests of the intellectual property center. Thus, royalty fees at NCIP increased by 30%.
In the last year of his life, Oleg Molchan was the Head of the Board of the Public Association “Belarusian Society of Authors, Performers and Other Rightholders”. And a little earlier, in July 2018, Molchan was unanimously elected the President of the Confederation of Rightholders’ Societies of Europe and Asia (CRSEA). At that position, Oleg Molchan made it possible that the authors were included in working groups to discuss the draft law “On Copyright and Related Law”. The composer cared about the projects aimed at reduction by 10 times of the minimum compensation for copyright infringement. As well as a proposal to exempt telecommunication operators from compensation for copyright infringement when distributing compulsory public package programs.
However, the parliament passed the law without taking into account the comments of the authors. That happened on the day of hospitalization of Oleg Molchan in the Aleksandrov Republican Scientific and Practical Center. Nevertheless, as a positive in the new version of the law, the composer saw the possibility of protection for holders of related rights and the regulation of royalties’ collection for the reproduction of works in private use.
By the way, Irina Vidova told “Komsomolskaya Pravda” that the proposal to establish a Fund named after Oleg Molchan to support creative projects and cultural figures is currently being discussed.
