The international conference was held in Chisinau (Moldova) on Collective management of copyright: European regulation, national legislation, and the digital environment on July 4-7, 2023. The core goal of the conference was the exchange of experience and the identification of priority areas in the field of copyright and related rights.

In the conference, representatives of CISAC, WIPO, АN “COPYRIGHT” (Moldova), ANFPI (Moldova), SCOC AB (Sweden), UACRR (Ukraine), GCA (Georgia), ARMAUTHOR (Armenia), KAZAK (Kazakhstan), ZAIKS (Poland), Heaven 11 (Ireland), OAZA + OOA-S (Czech Republic), UCMR-ADA (Romania) and SIIP (Uzbekistan) took participation.

Participants discussed a range of questions, such as the issues of harmonization and unification of the system of copyright protection, software solutions to support accurate collection and distribution of royalties, IT solutions in the digital age, the importance of monitoring programs, the development of general actions to implement the CISAC resolution on providing successful protection to prevent from undermining sovereignty and legitimacy of CISAC members.

Within the framework of the conference, the participants have identified the core issues in the field of copyright protection and related rights. The participants emphasized some CIS countries actively used illegal content on television and radio. Despite the existing legislation, representatives of the media sphere have a lack of interest to enter in licensing agreements with organizations for the collective management of authors rights (CMOs) and authors, and they try to circumvent the law On Copyright and Related Rights in any possible way. They use content without the permission of the authors, which causes moral and economic injury not only to the authors but also to the country and its reputation on the international stage. Also, both, users such as TV, radio, cafes, restaurants, shops, and specialists in the field (lawyers, judges, etc.) have a lack of understanding of issues related to copyright. In addition, participants highlighted the need to revise the legislation in the field of copyright protection and modernize it with the involvement of foreign specialists and practitioners.

International experts have noted that if a country seeks to become a WTO member, then one of the main issues is compliance with the provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in terms of the protection against copyright infringement. As respecting and protecting the authors rights are an integral part of the TRIPS requirements, they are directly related to the observance of human rights.