COLOMBIA
THE SOCIETY OF COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF COPYRIGHTS OF AUDIOVISUAL WORKS CONSIDERS THAT THE NEW POLICE CODE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
The society of collective management of copyrights of audiovisual works (EGEDA) filed an unconstitutional action against the new Police Code for considering that the new law discriminates the copyrights holders of audiovisual works.
EGEDA considers that the new Police Code (Law 1801) generates inequality between the copyright’s holders. According to them, this law generates inequality because it stablish that business establishments must present evidence of compliance of the payment of copyrights of musical works without stablish the same obligation related to the copyrights of audiovisual works.
In this case, the Constitutional Court may decide in favor of EGEDA by considering that business establishments must present evidence of compliance of payment of copyrights of both, musical and audiovisual works. Nevertheless, it is also likely that the Court decide in the opposite sense by considering that all the collective copyrights societies has the legal obligation of associate each other in order to send an unique charge to the business establishments, obligation that has not been accomplished by the Colombian collective societies so far.