On Tuesday, October 10th, we had the honor and pleasure to welcome to our offices the President of CISAC, songwriter and producer, member of the legendary ABBA, Bjorn Ulvaeus.
Bjorn was accompanied by the Director General of CISAC Gadi Oron, with whom they held a meeting with CEO Margarita Panagiotopoulou, BoD Chairman Yiannis Glezos, Supervisory Body Chairman Michalis Stavrinoudakis and Supervisory Body Vice-Chairman Irina Loukatou, as well as with AUTODIA executives, such as Ioannis Maragoudakis, Head of Legal, Natalia Gemichopoulou, Head of International Affairs and Ilianna Antoniou, Head of Communications & International Relations.
The discussion focused on major issues that concern the collective management of music rights, such as artificial intelligence, which is both a great opportunity and a huge challenge for creators’ rights and future.
In addition, Bjorn Ulvaeus had the opportunity to be informed about the great progress of AUTODIA at all levels and to get answers to several questions about its operation and activity in Greece as a CISAC regular member.
During the day, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Gadi Oron also met with other acclaimed Greek creators - members of AUTODIA, including Ilias Filippou, BoD Vice-Chairman, Foivos Tassopoulos, Board member, Dimitris Papadimitriou, and Thanos Papanikolaou, with whom they both had a very interesting and constructive discussion.
Earlier in the day, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Gadi Oron met with the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with whom they discussed the rapid impact on the music and audiovisual industry from the introduction of new technology, and in particular artificial intelligence, and the legislative measures to be taken to ensure creators’ protection.
Τhe government intends to tackle this issue and be among the leading states in the EU in this area. CISAC representatives thanked the Greek government for all its support in stabilizing the collective management field and pledged to step up efforts for sector’s unity and increasing royalty distributions in Greece.