SUISA’s international partners

Complete overview of international collective management organisations

Sister societies

Most composers join the rights management organisation of their own country. To be able to license the music of international artists, SUISA has concluded reciprocity agreements with over 100 sister societies worldwide. These agreements empower the rights management organisations to license their partner societies’ repertoires in their own territory. Thanks to such agreements, SUISA can offer the global music repertoire to users in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In exchange, the sister societies represent the rights of SUISA’s members in foreign countries.

International Federations

CISAC: The Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Auteurs et Compositeurs is the international umbrella federation for about 230 copyright societies in the fields of music, dramatical works, literature, audiovisual works, and the visual arts. CISAC’s President is Swedish composer and ABBA founding member Björn Ulvaeus. Politically, CISAC defends the rights of more than 4 million creators represented by its member societies. Functionally, it coordinates collective rights management worldwide, for example by encouraging technical cooperation between its members in areas such as documentation and distribution. SUISA representatives play an active role in several CISAC committees and working groups. 
 
GESAC: The Groupement Européen des Sociétés d’Auteurs et Compositeurs represents the interests of the European rights management organisations in Brussels. GESAC keeps the main EU institutions abreast of authors’ and creators’ rights, and copyright issues and concerns. It also plays an advisory role in legislative processes involving authors. For current information about the activities of GESAC, visit www.authorsocieties.eu/.
 
BIEM: The Bureau International des Sociétés gérant les Droits d’Enregistrement et de Reproduction Mécanique in Paris is the international umbrella association for recording and reproduction rights; it currently defends the rights of about 50 music rights management organisations. BIEM negotiates standard agreements with representatives of the sound recording industry (IFPI)  and supports technical cooperation on documentation and distribution between its member societies.

WIPO: SUISA also entertains regular contacts with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva

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