Second day of the 20th National Children's Book Festival, Sliven

The second day of the National Children's Book Festival in Sliven starts early in the morning, i.e. 9:00 a.m. In the event hall of the RB "Sava Dobroplodni" a discussion was held on the recently topical topic of reproduction and libraries. The topic came up in connection with the open letter that 30 Bulgarian writers presented not only to the Ministry of Culture, but also to the media. We will briefly try to provide some clarity on the issue, which actually affects artists working in the field of books (illustration, design, type, etc.) and their copyright contracts.

REPRO BG is an association that must monitor and protect the rights of authors when their works are mechanically reproduced by third parties (i.e. not publishers) for personal or commercial purposes. In simple words – if you go to a printing studio and copy 1, 2, 10 pages of a given book, then the author should receive payment for it. The same is true with libraries. When a book is borrowed by a reader who did not actually buy it. Thus, the question arose, who should pay these fees to writers. The readers? The business? The libraries?

In order to skip all the speculations that erupted in the media, some well-founded, some not, we will summarize what was said yesterday. In reality, the request of REPRO BG and the authors is directed to the Ministry of Culture and the National Culture Fund, which should give this money to the libraries, which should pay it to the writers. And in the case of mechanical reproduction of copies, the fees should actually be paid by the importers of the printing presses and equipment – a total of 1% of the business’s profit. So far, nothing complicated at first glance, but the question arose of how the money is then distributed among the authors. Before the collected compensation fees are distributed among the rights holders, 30 percent of the collected amount is deducted and transferred to the account of the National Culture Fund. REPRO BG distributes the remaining amount among the different categories of rights holders, its members, in the following way: 50% for writers, 50% for publishers. And if the association's admonition is that these fees will not burden anyone, because they are "parts of a penny", then can you do a calculation for us, how much is the payment? Where are the artists? Well, the UBA is not a member of REPRO BG!

We are just leaving things hanging in the air and let's get back to the festival, because it is definitely more pleasant there. The collection “Iskaaam” was presented at the Stefan Kirov Drama Theater, which brings together works by the winners of the National Award “Konstantin Konstantinov” in the categories “for overall contribution” and “author” for the period 2013-2017. “Little Big Bojana” and Bojana Apostolova were also part of the program on the second day, as well as “The Fairy from the Sugar Bowl” by Katya Antonova and “Lupo and Tumba” by Petya Kokudeva and Romina Beneventi.

The city was filled with a carnival procession, a cheerleading squad, “Fireter – theater of fire and shadows”, a brass band and the creative workshop “Mask and makeup for the carnival beloved”.

The official ceremony for the awarding of the “Konstantin Konstantinov” award was held at the end of the day. The anniversary brought together a large number of the writers who have been awarded over the years. Among the officials were the Deputy Minister of Culture Ms. Amelia Gesheva, the Chairperson of the 44th National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria Ms. Tsveta Karayancheva and the Mayor of Sliven – Stefan Radev. We will share the performance of the concert-performance in footage, and now… who won the prize…

(you can view the full album of photos on our Facebook page)