A fantastic example of an in-house lawyer showcasing commercial acumen to rise through the ranks of their business, Gadi Oron has progressed from the general counsel role of CISAC to become the overall CEO of the organisation. CISAC’s primary objective – which includes safeguarding, promoting and lobbying on behalf of the rights and interests of creative individuals and organisations globally – requires Oron to liaise with governments, NGOs and international organisations around the world, but despite this demanding workload he remains fully involved with the institution’s legal requirements; indeed, much of the work CISAC engages with is fundamentally legal in nature. Amongst a plethora of impressive achievements for him and CISAC over the past year, Oron mentions a recent trip to South Korea to meet with congressmen in Seoul as a particularly rewarding episode.

‘South Korea is the world’s leading digital market’, he explains, ‘so travelling there to sign a memorandum of understanding with the government agency in charge of eradicating online piracy was a major step’. Alongside meeting other governmental heavy hitters, including the European Commission, one of Oron’s main tasks is speaking to authors, composers and other IP creators in order to make them aware of their rights: ‘A large part of what we are doing is to help creators themselves understand how policies and laws affect their lives, and mobilise them to make sure they are involved with our activities as much as possible. The voices of the creators are the most effective lobbying tool we have’. Oron is also required to take on some truly impressive companies in order to secure the rights of creators, one of the most notable of these being YouTube, which hosts an almost incalculable volume of creative content on its streaming service yet pays far less than any other online platform.

‘We don’t want YouTube to take songs down’, he explains, ‘we just want them to get a license and pay fairly, as they are distorting the market and pushing prices down. Unfortunately at the moment in many countries they claim they are not a music service, so we commissioned an economic study to show that in fact they are and we are actively lobbying in many countries for legislative updates; this is an ongoing project’.