The Fanny Mickey Act, which seeks to protect the royalties and economic rights of actors involved in audiovisual productions that are later sold and broadcast in Colombia and abroad, was signed by the outgoing president, Alvaro Uribe, after being approved by the Congress last June 17, 2010.

This marked the end of a long struggle of over 15 years, started by the CICA (Colombian Artists Circle) and AISGE (Performers Management Society), and provides for the payment of royalties to artists and performers of works and audiovisual recordings of the broadcasts of productions in which they have participated, for their purchase and rent, a right that interpreters in other countries have been able to claim and enjoy for decades.

In the current situation, this new law is of great importance, given the significant export of Colombian dramas, soap operas and movies that have been produced in recent years. This payment for the contribution that actors and Colombian artists have made to the quality of exported products was not supported or protected in any national standard until the enactment of the Fanny Mickey Act.

The rule had broad support in both legislative chambers and an entire group of Colombian and Latin American actors. To AISGE and Latin Artis (Ibero-American organization that brings together all actors' management entities from Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay), to obtain recognition of their actors' intellectual property rights in different countries of Latin America is a key objective.

The Act refers exclusively to audiovisual performances. It is, therefore, a rule that does not affect other owners, who already enjoy protection in the Copyright Act since 1982. The Act also includes two exceptions which apply exclusively to audiovisual performances by actors: public communication that is made for strictly educational purposes and reproduction of an audiovisual work in establishments open to the public.

Then, the reform introduced by Law Fanny Mickey is only applicable to the work of actors and not the other holders of rights that already enjoy this regulation, recognizing their right to equitable remuneration, of which was previously only enjoyed by authors and writers.