University of Alicante Intellectual Property & Information Technology

The Valencian artisanal guild of “Fire Workers” outsources their copyright management

25.02.2014

The artisanal guild of “Fire workers” (“Falleros” in Spanish) has contracted “Whose IP Agency” to manage their Copyright. “Whose IP Agency” is a Valencian company whose corporate purpose is the mediation and collaboration in the provision of all kind of services in the field of intellectual property and intangible goods of cultural interest.

The idea of outsourcing the copyright management has its origin in the benefit that third parties got by means of reproduction of the “fire workers” works. Thus, the “fire workers” guild aims to get the rights of reproduction of original sketches drawn and images of monuments and avoid their commercialization without author’s permission.

Both the media and social networks have spread this news, generating a great controversy about the possible consequences of the agreement. In response to the interest generated, the “fire workers” guild issued a statement assuring that this agreement will not affect neither media, nor “fire workers” or tourists who will visit Valencia. In this sense, “fire workers” guild insists on the idea that the media will be able to show the “Fallas” monuments as they have always done.

Written by Carlos J. Vera Tordera y Elena Gutiérrez

Source:

http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2014/02/04/valencia/1391508971_121811.html

http://www.empresia.es/empresa/whose-ip-agency/

Image: Fran Ontanaya under Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA 2.0)