Dear friends,

On behalf of the Norwegian Government and the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to Oslo and to this symposium. It also gives me great pleasure to congratulate Kopinor, all its employees and members with the twenty-fifth anniversary.

Copyright legislation is the most important cultural legislation. This combines the world of ideas with the world of commerce. It ensures investments in creative work, ensures the moral and economic interests of the author, the interests of holders of neighbouring rights, and it fosters creativity.

The Norwegian, and Nordic, copyright legislation has for many years provided a high level of protection for both authors and neighbouring right holders. This legislation is a fundamental aspect of our cultural policy. We have traditionally chosen collective solutions where we have found that individual rights and distribution of revenues is impossible or too expensive to administer. The solution adopted in the Nordic countries for clearance of mass use of copyrighted works is, as you all know, called extended collective licence.

Estimates made by the Finnish Copyright Institute, show that the value added to the Gross National Product of Norway by enterprises and activities basing themselves on copyright legislation, amounts to between 3 and 4 per cent of the Gross National Product. This is equal to the added value of agriculture, foresting and mining all together. This shows that Copyright is an area of increasing importance in our country’s economy. And - I would argue- in any country’s economy.

As far as the extended collective licence is concerned, very few people in Norway know exactly what we are talking about. The same is not the situation when Kopinor is mentioned. To explain the extended collective licence system it is very often necessary to start with the Kopinor-system, and then explain that this system is not only established in connection with Kopinor, but on several areas in the Norwegian Copyright legislation.

The details of the licence system, I will leave to the next speaker, but I will mention that the system was established in Norway for use of works in broadcasting in the 1960-ies. In the late 1970-ies it was found to be the proper solution to copyright questions concerning reprography(paper copies), and in the 1980-ies also in the area of retransmission of television channels. Just now a new copyright legislation is pending before the Parliament, and it is proposed to extend the extended collective licence system to the digital area both for educational use and for use in administration of the state, municipalities as well as businesses and industry. We also introduce the system for use of works in libraries, and to make it possible to clear the rights for works in the archives of broadcasting organisations.

The tradition of collective arrangements and extended licence had not been possible without professional organisations and professional collective societies. They have the capability to administer the collective arrangements in coexistence with management based on individual rights.

Kopinor has, as one of these professional organisations, now been on this arena for twenty-five years. Kopinor has made the system of extended collective licensing to a well functioning, well accepted system within the area of reprographic reproduction (paper copies). Where the users earlier had to choose between unauthorised use or no use at all. Kopinor has paved the way for legal use – and revenues for the rightholders. As the representative of the government, I take pride in the fact that the Norwegian Government some 25 years ago wanted to act legally. As part of our cultural policy we wanted to pay for works used. Therefore we entered into negotiations with rightholders on payment for photocopying in educational institutions some 25 years ago. These negotiations were led - and I might say sucessfully, by the Ministry of cultural affairs. As a result, almost any official institution – including my ministry – pays according to the negotiated sum for use of protected material. We on the government side of the table – may sometime think it is expensive – but we know, on the other hand, that this is a payment for use which benefits the authors.

Kopinor was one of the founding members of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO), which organises collective managements worldwide. Kopinor has contributed to the setting up of similar systems in other countries. I have been told that more than 20 percent of the remuneration (money) which Kopinor collects – goes out of the country, and that a development fund is established to help organizations in other countries to build up similar systems. This work is supported financially by the The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), and in this way the Norwegian state shows its appreciation for the work that Kopinor does on the international arena.

Kopinor is transparent, well run – but will always have to stand up for it’s members, and for it’s operations. We know that such operations will be challenged, not least when entering into a new field covering digital copying.

We also know that the further development of copyright into the digital age will imply debate - much debate. As the Minister responsible for presenting copyright proposals to the Parliament, I will have to strike the balance between the rights of the rightholders, and the interests of the general public. This balancing act, and the concrete outcome in proposed legislation, is increasingly challenged. In this debate, it is vital that the individual rightholder takes part to defend his or hers basic right to control the use of hers or his work.

Some worries about the power of the big software companies when protection of Digital Rights Management Systems are proposed. They seem to regard the copyright legislation as the preferred battle field for questions that actually should belong to competition law. The outcome of the present Parliament debate in this country is not certain - however: I am certain that good systems will prevail. And we do have such a system.

From the agenda of todays symposium, I see that there are a wide range of subjects.I find it a most appropriate way of celebrating the 25 year anniversary to take the opportunity to look back and take stock in order to shape the future. It is my hope that this symposium will be fruitful and beneficial to you all, and that those of you who visit Oslo for the first time will have the opportunity to learn a little about the city.

To Kopinor I will again say Congratulations, and good luck with the nexčt 25

Thank you.