CORDIS Archive

PRISAM has created a one stop information shop to speed and simplify negotiations between multimedia producers and rights holders throughout Europe. Plans are now in place to extend content to include works administered by EUROCOPYA companies in several other European countries.

What is PRISAM?

PRISAM is an information system created to promote and facilitate negotiations between European producers and editors of multimedia products on the one hand and rights holders on the other. The one stop information shop is the brainchild of the four founding members of the European Federation of Joint Management Societies of Producers for Private Audio-visual Copying (EUROCOPYA).

The project aims to procure and transmit information about copyright and neighbouring rights to audio-visual works, but also to establish contacts, representation of interests and co-operation with foreign producer collecting societies and organisations with similar objectives.

"Although clearance of rights is important, a key part of the PRISAM service is to put multimedia producers in touch with rights holders and to preserve the links from content producers to potential users and from one content producer to another," explains Marielle Griffin of joint co-ordinator PROCIREP. "PRISAM itself will not deal with rights licensing, but will leave licensing agreements to individual negotiations between identified rights holders."

The service has been made available via a website, designed to simplify the rights clearance process for any potential multimedia producer and thus to enhance the development of the use of audio-visual components within multimedia works.

How it Works

The PRISAM web site contains around six thousand feature films, but the content of the system will grow dramatically in the coming months to comprise a rich source of audio-visual information from the home countries of the four participants. They include hundreds of thousands of documentaries, game shows, TV fiction, entertainment programmes and animated series for which copyright is administered by the four participating organisations. These are held in the form of 'mirror' databases.

The Prisam system was designed by a Sekam Video team (website editor Frits Oostvogel & technical manager Jan van Sandwijk) with the emphasis on security.

The site's home page is freely accessible for general information, but subsequent levels are password secured and available only to registered users, such as multimedia producers.

A search facility allows users to identify titles according to a range of criteria, such as International Standard Audio-visual Number (ISAN), title, genre, producer/director, actor, composer. Having searched all the mirror databases, PRISAM displays relevant information for the best matches only.

At this point the registered user may request rights holder information on titles of interest, in exchange for a small fee. The system checks the bona fides of the user, before generating an email message which is then sent to the relevant participant within the corresponding mirror database. At this stage, the identity of the rights holder has not yet been divulged to the user. This ensures full security for the copyright owner.

What has been Achieved?

Film director and writer Wim Verstappen directed and produced fifteen feature length films in a career spanning the 60s, 70s and 80s, before setting up Sekam Video. His work includes Grijpstra en de Gier (Fatal Error), which starred a youthful and relatively unknown Rutger Hauer, before 'Bladerunner' made him an international star.

"I see PRISAM as a stepping stone rather than the definitive answer. In a few years time there will be a lot more audio-visual material on the internet, for which the copyright owner will have to be identified," says Mr. Verstappen. "We cannot just go on with our own national databases. We have made a substantial investment in PRISAM to get a European system up and running".

PRISAM had already received publicity at the MILIA exhibitions, both in 1999 and in 2000, where it met with considerable interest from multimedia project managers and licence acquisition managers. At MILIA 2001 a prototype of the web site was put on show and PRISAM is also exploring ways of sharing information with other MMRCS projects

There are plans to extend content of the PRISAM web site to include works administered by other EUROCOPYA companies in Spain, Sweden, Austria, Poland and beyond. The participants will also expand their IT resources to reflect the number of new members joining the project.

Participants

Joint project co-ordinators are PROCIREP of Paris and Sekam Video of Amsterdam. With GWFF of Munich and PROCIBEL of Brussels, the partners have divided responsibility for the project along geographical lines.

Joint Co-ordinator

Marielle Griffin
PROCIREP
11 bis, rue Jean Goujon
F 75008 Paris
Tel +33 1 53 83 91 91
Fax +33 1 53 83 91 92
Email marielle_griffin@procirep.fr

Joint Co-ordinator

Jan van Sandwijk
Sekam Video
PO Box 581 1000 AN
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel (+31 -20) 676 50 88
Fax (+31 -20)673 98 10
Email vansandwyk@compuserve.com

Other partners
GWFF, Munich, Germany
PROCIBEL, Brussels, Belgium

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