November 6, 2017 – APMA held its first General Assembly meeting at the Keyaki Hall (capacity 200) in the Koga Masao Museum of Music (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo).
Prior to the GA, in the morning of the same day, APMA’s Executive Committee met, during which a draft of the Tokyo Declaration was approved, and ExCo member representing South Korea Yoon Myung Sun was appointed vice chairman. APMA will go forward with Shunichi Tokura serving as chairman, and Yoon Myung Sun and Brendan Gallagher serving as the two vice chairmen.
The General Assembly held that afternoon, attended by many music creators, consisted of three parts.
During the first part, APMA Chairman Shunichi Tokura reported on APMA’s activities during the 2016/2017 period, and then explained the contents of the proposed Tokyo Declaration, which received unanimous approval and applause (copy below).
Part two, the Tokyo General Assembly Special Presentations, consisted of the following presentations:
- “Possibility of legislation of private sound recording compensation system in the Asian region” – Lessons from Japan, Learning from Europe – Speaker: Masayoshi Sumida, Attorney at Law, Professor – Tokai University
- “Importance of Public Relations and Lobbying for Enhancement of Copyright System” – Speaker: Benjamin Ng, Regional Director for Asia-Pacific, International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC)
A panel discussion titled “The Significance of APMA” was held as the third and final part, with Shunichi Tokura, International Council of Music Creators (CIAM) President Lorenzo Ferrero, and music creators from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, three countries with no CISAC-member copyright management organizations, taking the stage. In addition to explanations of the current state of copyright systems in each of the countries, the experiences of those involved in the establishment of a collective management organization in Cabo Verde (island nation off the west coast of Africa) was reported on. The event highlighted that supporting such countries in the Asia-Pacific was one of the important roles APMA needs to play.
Following the conclusion of the APMA General Assembly, a reception was held with the participation of meeting attendees at the Hilton Tokyo hotel in Shinjuku-ku.
The Tokyo Declaration
The Asia-Pacific Music Creators Alliance (APMA), following its successful Seoul meeting in May this year, has assembled music creators from around the region in Tokyo, to reinforce the campaign for better protection of authors’ rights to maintain respect for the creation of music, our culture, and the value of our creations.
In addition to the 3 issues identified in the Seoul Declaration, namely the resolution of the issue of buy-outs, the necessity of copyright term extension to life plus 70 years for music creators, and the prevention of the abuse of safe-harbor rules, the following issues also must be addressed.
Music lovers have enjoyed the freedom of privately reproducing music.As this has been recognized as a usage for which music creators ought to be remunerated, private copying remuneration systems have been developed and implemented in Europe and many other parts of the world.The Rapid introduction of remuneration systems into the countries of the Asia-Pacific is of paramount importance.
Music is an integral part of a movie. While films constitute a major part of the vast entertainment industry, film music creators are not remunerated fairly in the Asia-Pacific countries for the public showing of films that include their music.Film music creators should be remunerated at a level where they too can enjoy the success of a movie.
From the Seoul Declaration to the Tokyo Declaration. We will unite to comprehensively resolve each of these issues, and lobby governments, policy makers and politicians with the understanding and support of society on our side, so that the music culture we take pride in will continue to flourish and continue to create beautiful music.
