Members of the Moldovan Rightsholders Association MORA made a series of accusations against the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI). One of them refers to the refusal to issue the permit for MORA, as an association, to manage the copyrights of its members and pay them the due remuneration.

In a press briefing hosted by IPN, MORA director general Constantin Pădure said that the Association faced a number of obstacles placed by AGEPI employees, especially persons holding executive posts. The examination of MORA’s file for obtaining the appraisal was delayed while associations controlled by monopolists from the field obtain these appraisals on conveyor belt. In The interests of the monopolists and AGEPI’s managers are interconnected.

According to Constantin Pădure, Eugen Rusu, who was named director of AGEPI in 2021, knew very well about the violations committed by associations working in the field. Although he previously said that he would reform the sector and cultivate fairness so that the authors and rightsholders benefit from fair, equitable and transparent remuneration, he didn’t keep his promises.

Chairman of the Literary Fund of Moldovan Writers Nicolae Rusu, a member of the Board of AO MORA, said that for 11 years he has been wondering what the purpose of the existence of the State Agency on Intellectual Property is. “This state institution should supervise compliance with the copyright law, which is very important. In reality, it does everything possible for this law to be violated,” stated Nicolae Rusu.

Artistic director of the National Philharmonic “Sergey Lunkevich” Marian Stârcea, a member of the Board of AO MORA, said that he cannot understand why an organization is denied the legitimate right to verify copyright compliance. “If there are more organizations, they should compete with each other to see which of them works better? I see no problem with this healthy competition existing. But in our country, someone controls everything and things do not work as they should work in a civilized country,” he stated.

Note: IPN Agency offers the right to reply of persons who consider themselves targeted in the news made from the statements of the organizers of this press conference, including by facilitating the organization of another press conference under similar conditions.