Bulgaria joins the European family of "Agorateka"
We have the pleasure to announce that Bulgaria is part of the European platform “Agorateka”, created by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). “Agorateka” provides the users with the possibility to use national electronic portals with links to websites which are licensed to distribute copyright protected works – music, movies, books, videogames, sport events and etc. This is also a “map” of the legal online sources that offer high-quality content. “Agorateka” is an effective way for counteracting the illegal content distribution by giving the users an easy (free and paid) access to such content. Research, conducted before the start of the project shows that 83 % of the Europeans prefer to use legal streaming services, if the latter is easily accessible.
The Bulgarian portal that will be included in “Agorateka” is called artclick.bg and is created by the Ministry of Culture together with its partner organizations - Association for Protection of the Legal Distribution of Programs – TeRaPro, in its capacity of representative of the major stakeholders on the market of TV content distribution, Association of Bulgarian Radio and Television Broadcasters – ABBRO, in its capacity of the most representative media organization in Bulgaria that brings together commercial media service providers, Bulgarian Association of the Music Producers – BAMP, in its capacity of an organization whose members are outstanding Bulgarian Producers of sound recordings and music videos, Bulgarian Book Association in its capacity of the only representative organization of book publishers, traders and agents in Bulgaria and att. Hristina Georgieva, member of Sofia Bar Association, in her capacity of representative of the gaming and entertainment industry. Artclick.bg facilitates the users to search for legal content online by giving them access to all their favorite movies, TV shows, music, books and games - all at one place.
Except as a facilitation for the users, as mentioned above, artclick.bg is created with one very important purpose – counteracting online content piracy, which according to the last EUIPO report: „Online copyright infringement in the European union films, music, publications, software and TV (2017-2022)“ has increased for 2022 in comparison to 2021 with 3,3 %. The report also states that as per the live sports events, piracy has increased with the enormous 30 %. The inclusion of Bulgaria in “Agorateka” is also in accordance with the requirements of the Recommended actions of the European Commission for combating online piracy of sports and other live events in which the Commission explicitly emphasizes the role of “Agorateka” as a main alternative to the pirate sites..