Licensing & Rights Management

Rights clearance in Colombia runs through a layered set of registries and collecting societies. Our team works each one as part of standard prep. Author rights and copyright registration go through the Dirección Nacional de Derecho de Autor (DNDA) under Ley 23 de 1982 and Ley 1915 de 2018. This modernized the framework to cover digital exploitation.

Here is how the picture comes together. Music sync clearance is split between SAYCO (Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de Colombia) for authors and composers and ACINPRO (Asociación Colombiana de Intérpretes y Productores Fonográficos) for performers and phonogram producers; we run dual queries on every cue and confirm whether master recordings have been pre-cleared through Universal Music Latino, Sony Music Colombia, or independent labels operating out of Bogotá, Cali, and Medellín. Where vallenato, cumbia, champeta, reggaetón, or Pacific marimba traditions are in play, we trace lineage carefully — many songs sit inside heritage-protected repertoires and need extra Comisión de Cultura conversations alongside the standard royalty agreement.

Talent and image rights are set up in bilingual EN/ES release packs designed to satisfy Colombian data-protection law (Ley 1581 de 2012 on Habeas Data) and the talent-likeness rules carried through Ley 1915. We register talent agreements with the ACA (Asociación Colombiana de Actores), align extras and supporting-cast paperwork with MinTrabajo labor codes, and feed pre-existing footage clearances through the RTVC Señal Memoria archive when news or documentary material is involved.

Trademark clearance for brands visible on camera moves through the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (SIC). DIAN records supports the IVA 19% recovery line and the CINA-qualified expense file. Indigenous storytelling — Wayuu, Arhuaco, Kogi, U'wa — runs through cabildo consent protocols layered on top of the standard chain-of-title, and Spanish and English versions of every contract get filed in parallel so distribution counsel in Bogotá and the global buyer's legal team both have a clean executed copy.