Meet our member: ZAPA in Poland
For a long time, the Polish film community mobilised to get royalties for on-demand and online use of their works. Together with young filmmakers, ZAPA was at the forefront of this success. I connected with Dominik Skoczek, ZAPA’s Managing Director, from his office in Warsaw to speak about his work and the Polish EU Presidency that started on 1st January. A sports injury prevented him from attending the last SAA Board meeting in person. Besides football sneakers, Skoczek has stepped into many shoes during his professional career, giving him a unique experience and understanding of the creative sector.
Dominik Skoczek is the Managing Director of ZAPA, where he has worked for 13 years. He is an attorney of law and a member of the Warsaw Bar Association. In addition, Skoczek is the Vice-President of Creative Poland, an association for the Polish creative sector gathering authors, producers, artists and entrepreneurs. Before joining ZAPA, he was Director of the Intellectual Property and Media Department in the Ministry of Culture and during the Polish EU Presidency in 2011, he was responsible for the Council working groups on audiovisual policy and copyright. It was his work at the Ministry that led him to ZAPA. During his time there, he became interested in the work of collective management organisations, which he was also responsible for overseeing. Earlier in his career, he worked for satellite operators and broadcasters, including TVP Polish Television (Telewizja Polska S.A.).
“A great advantage of ZAPA, and what makes it different from many other CMOs, is that it represents both authors and producers. It has helped us to negotiate with users and to advocate for remuneration rights.”
ZAPA is a collective management organisation for authors and producers of audiovisual works. It was founded in 1995 by famous Polish directors, screenwriters and producers. ZAPA represents almost 7,000 authors and 900 producers and is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The SAA is proud to have two Polish authors on its Board of Patrons, Katarzyna Klimkiewicz and Aleksander Pietrzak (see their SAA video interviews here), both who are also active members of ZAPA and on its Board. ZAPA manages a broad catalogue of authors’ rights, representing not only directors and screenwriters, but also directors of photography, set and costume designers, sound and film editors. The advantage is that the catalogue is open, but on the other side it also means that any group of authors can claim that they are entitled to royalties, making the collection and distribution difficult, Skoczek explained.
“From the very beginning, we thought that close cooperation with European associations was key to the proper functioning of our organisation. The SAA gives guidance, exchange of best practice and while ZAPA is well established, it also provides legitimacy towards national authorities.”
Skoczek described the SAA as an inspiration for new CMOs. I couldn't help but add that ZAPA is also an inspiration and good practice for other CMOs. ZAPA is one of our founding members and has always been an active contributor and participant in the SAA, not least with Skoczek as a Board member. ZAPA collects around €40 million for authors alone, said Skoczek, going on to explain that as a post-Soviet country, they know how difficult it is to operate in a hostile environment. In addition, Big Tech companies are lobbying all governments to avoid any regulation. Having learned the hard way, ZAPA has built up persistence and resilience to continue the fight, going to court if necessary. This is why SAA’s advocacy efforts to harmonise authors’ rights in Europe are particularly important for countries in the Central and Eastern Europe.
Two success stories
Skoczek began with the good news that the District Court had recently preliminary ruled in favour of ZAPA in a case against the Polish government for failing to properly implement the private copying reform in accordance with the 2001 EU Infosoc Directive. This would mean that remuneration would have to be paid to authors, and the government would have to modernise its regulation to include levies on new devices and equipment such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. This is the last gap in Polish legislation that needs to be filled to ensure that authors' rights are protected.
Second, last September the Polish law implementing the 2019 EU DSM Directive came into force (read SAA’s congratulations), giving authors the right to remuneration for the exploitation of their works by streaming services and online. ZAPA have entered negotiations and by the end of the year they will have an agreement with at least all Polish services. Long negotiations on tariffs are needed before royalties reach individual authors, but Skoczek expects 80% of the market to be covered within three years. Given the mobilised campaign by the Polish film community to put pressure on the streaming services, Skoczek did not believe that Big Tech would risk picking any more fights that could damage their image.
“I would be very satisfied if the Polish EU Presidency took on board and secured the outcome of the DSM Directive, especially in relation to the online exploitation of works.”
On copyright, Skoczek welcomed the Polish Presidency’s questionnaire to Member States. He considered it a task for the Presidency to address the issue of major streaming services’ attempts to impose a buy-out system in Europe. Moreover, Generative AI should be a key priority of the Presidency. ZAPA shared SAA’s view that the interpretation of the DSM Directive, to allow the use of text and data exception for all AI-related purposes, is unacceptable.
On the cultural front, Skoczek welcomed the discussions in the EU Council on the revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). ZAPA have started discussions on implementing new mechanisms for financial investment by streaming platforms in local production in Poland, and the quotas for European works in the on-demand catalogues. So far, Poland has implemented the AVMS Directive in a minimal way, with only some levies imposed on streaming services to finance the Polish Film Institute (1,5% of their turnover in Poland), the 30% obligatory quota for the presence of European works in the catalogues. Now ZAPA is calling for more to foster Polish audiovisual production, such as higher quotas, support for independent production and tax incentives. ZAPA would like to see more streaming services investing in Polish production, as Netflix does in Poland. However, being produced in Poland does not necessarily mean that it is culturally Polish content and in the Polish language. In some smaller markets, such as Croatia or Slovenia, only foreign works are produced, often in English. “We are afraid of becoming a subcontractor for foreign production companies”, said Skoczek. “We need a reform that will bring foreign investors to Poland, both for TV series and film production, and at the same time strengthen the Polish production market”, he explained.
“I believe our investment in raising members’ awareness of how we work has paid off and will continue to do so.”
Before we ended the call, Skoczek added a reflection on the lessons learned from ZAPA’s ‘Internet Royalties’ campaign. He emphasised that he now values even more the benefits of good cooperation between collective management organisation and its members, beyond the statutory meetings. “We are founded by creators, managed by creators, and controlled by creators, and we work exclusively for creators. So, it is worth investing time in information campaigns for members to make them aware of how we work and how we run the distribution”, Skoczek concluded.
Public Affairs and Communication Director, SAA