Singer and violinist Samir Shukri (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Exclusive: The writer of the huge hit "Rona" performed by Samir Shukri is suing Ekum and "Helicon Songs" on the claim that she did not receive the royalties due to her for more than 30 years. The creator of the song, former producer Yiffit Avitan, claims that from 1991 until the year Today, she did not receive a single shekel of royalties for the radio broadcasts and broadcast rights of the big hit, which she estimates at over two million shekels. Avitan claims that an agreement in which she supposedly transferred all her rights to the song "Rone" to a French company is a fake, while she says she did not sign this document Never. A year ago, Yiffit, through attorney Yohai Chai, filed a lawsuit against Akum and "Helikon Songs" for recognition of her rights to the song, and in the next step she intends to file a huge lawsuit to recover all the royalties collected by Akum.
Yafit told Walla!
A culture that wrote the song "Rona" in 1986 to the tune of an Arabic folk song.
She named the song "Rona" after the daughter of the violinist and singer of the song Samir Shukri, with whom the song became the most identified.
In 1987, the song was registered in the Ekoum database under Yiffit's name. Shortly after its release, the song "Rona" became a huge hit, which was broadcast many times on radio, television and at events, received many cover versions by other artists, was included in advertisements and is still present in the media and networks.
Despite all this, Avitan claims that from 1991 until the day the lawsuit was filed about a year ago, Akum did not transfer royalties to her for the uses made of the song, but rather transferred them according to her to the French company "Ascot Music" who were registered as publishers of the piece. - according to Avitan, contrary to her knowledge - and "Helicon Songs", the Israeli publisher that represented the French company until the lawsuit was filed.
At the beginning of last year, Avitan filed the lawsuit against Akum and "Helicon Songs" in a request for "historical correction" of the registration of her rights in the work "Rona", for the return of her unpaid royalties from 1991, which she estimates to be over two million shekels, as well as for the deletion of the registration of rights and the return Funds from the "Helicon Songs" company and the French "Ascot" company.
After she claimed that she did not receive royalties for the song, she tried to find out the reason for this - without an answer from Ekoum.
In the nineties, she moved to the United States following an operation, and stayed there for several years.
In her attempts to find out from there also the reasons for the non-payment of royalties, she claimed to have experienced "a feeling of deliberate ignoring and concealment on the part of Akoum representatives." Attorney Yohai Chai added: "Beyond the answers to the questions of 'you are not entitled to royalties', Yafit was unable to communicate with Akoum representatives." and her feeling was as if an order had been received not to share information with her." Even after her return to Israel,
"My heart is broken, it's hard to describe feelings of insult."
Yiffit Avitan, writer of the hit song "Rona" sung by Samir Shukri, archive photo (photo: courtesy of those photographed)
In the statement of defense submitted by Akum, it claims that there are two reasons for withholding royalties from the Israeli composer: the first is that the song "Rona" is a foreign work, its name "Ya-Zahma", which originates in Egypt, and that its creators are allegedly Egyptian citizens - the writer of the Arabic lyrics Hani Hamuda and the composer Hassan Muhammad Abu Itaman, and claimed that Yiffit should have obtained their consent to the Hebrew version. The second reason is that in 1991, Akom received by fax an agreement in the French language in which Yiffit supposedly transferred all her rights to the work to a French company called "Ascot Music" based in Paris.
According to Akom's records, from the moment the agreement was received, Yiffit was deleted from its records and all song royalties were transferred to the French company.
Yiffit was amazed by the answer of AKUM because according to her the agreement is completely fake. She said that she learned about its existence for the first time only in July 2020 in a conversation with the international contracts department at AKUM.
"The agreement is completely blurred and illegible in such a way that not even BAC were able to read it," said Attorney Chai, "This is a fake agreement. Yiffit has never met the French company, does not speak French, does not know its people and was not even in Paris at the time The date of the signing emblazoned on the agreement. A record of arrivals and departures from Israel supports Yafit's claim that at the time of the alleged signing of the agreement she was in Israel
.
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According to Avitan, Acomm hid the existence of the agreement from her for over 30 years. Acomm, she claims, did not contact her to check the trustworthiness and reliability of the agreement, nor did it itself perform reliability checks according to the requirements of Israeli law and law concerning foreign documents.
"Contrary to the sense of justice, which revolts against a continuous injustice of over 32 years in which Mifit was deprived of recognition of her rights as the author of the work 'Rona', AKUM - which, as you know, is an organization that is supposed to protect Israeli works, Israeli creators and copyrights in Israel - does everything in its power to to make it difficult for the creator in any legal way at her disposal," says Attorney Chai.
"Starting with the concealment of the fake agreement and the other agreements that were signed above the plaintiff's head, through the obligation to investigate the claim with arbitrators whose hourly cost reaches thousands of shekels, the refusal to grant her an exemption from the claim fee, the refusal to disclose the royalty amounts of the work, and the claim of statute of limitations - all to prevent Mipith from winning recognition As the creator of 'Rona', to exhaust her rights in the work and to be rewarded with the royalties of the work from the past 32 years."
Samir Shukri (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Advocate Yohai Chai (Photo: Courtesy of those photographed)
"In Yafit's estimation, this is a withholding of royalties in the amount of at least two million shekels," emphasizes Attorney Chai, "the fake agreement is also the reason why Akoum withheld and continues to withhold from the plaintiff the royalties of the work 'Rona'. Until 2020 Ako did not provide" There is no explanation for the withholding of the royalties and she did not discover the existence of the foreign agreement, while in practice she granted licenses to use the work, collected royalties, offset her commission from them and transferred the remaining royalties to the whole world - except for the creator of the work - Yipit."
Close to the filing of the lawsuit, the Akum changed Yiffit's status from translator to author, "and now she is finally recognized as the author of 'Rona,'" says Attorney Chai.
"As a result of the lawsuit, Helicon Songs hastened to withdraw its hand from the work and cancel the publishing rights that were registered in its name in Akum. As of today, more than a year since the lawsuit was filed, the lawsuit is in the stages of clarifying preliminary claims. Akum and Helicon Songs refuse to reveal documents to Lipit that will reveal exactly how much money the song 'Rona' generated from royalties and they depend on preliminary requests for statute of limitations and the arbitrator's lack of authority to discuss the claim - all in the hope that Lipit will abandon her claim." Yipit
, in any case, does not intend to give up, and after succeeding in her claim for recognition of her rights to the song "Rona" intends to file a lawsuit against Akum and "Helicon Songs" in the next step to recover all the royalties collected for the song.
"My heart is broken, it's hard to describe the feelings of insult," Yiffit Avitan told Walla!
culture.
"I haven't slept for whole nights since the fake contract was sent to me. I was trying to understand the reason why AKUM did not inform me that this contract had been accepted.
If I had known, I would have solved it at that moment.
Akum are offsetting their part in the work, so why not inform me? Who stirred the pot more than thirty years ago? What is hidden behind their resistance to revealing the documents? What are they hiding? I am trying to find peace and I have no answers to all the questions. And only mine. Why plunder? Why enslave? Does the saying 'and money blinds the eyes of the wise' - because there are no righteous people - appropriate for the plunder and embezzlement that was done to me?"
"The supreme principle, which stands above any legal norm related to the recognition and exploitation of rights, and copyright in particular, is the 'rainy days' principle," adds attorney Yohai Chai. to continue supporting the creator and his family members.
Yiffit's case is an expression and a clear example of the usurpation of the creator's right to rely on her spiritual assets on rainy days."
Samir Shukri (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Comments
Acomm responded: "Avitan's claims are clarified in an internal arbitration process of Acomm before a retired judge and there they will be decided, and this is not the place to find out the claims in the media. The things quoted in the article supposedly from Acomm's defense letter are falsified and misleading.
First, there is no reason for the claims regarding the withholding of royalties from Avitan.
Avitan was not a member of Acomm at all until 2020, although many times over the years it was offered to join, and Acomm could not and cannot collect royalties for those who are not its members.
Secondly, it is a lawsuit that has become obsolete since Avitan has known since the nineties that the work is based on the work of Egyptian artists and that this causes difficulty - including regarding the distribution of royalties - and knew that it is not an Acomm company and that it cannot receive royalties, but for years it did nothing and acted to resolve this difficulty.
"Today, over thirty years since the relevant events took place, when the work is no longer as popular as it was, it has been recalled to sue and it goes without saying that it is not possible to find out the full facts and claims of Avitan since a significant portion of the relevant documents have not been preserved and cannot be located. The claims regarding a change in Avitan's status in Baku "Following the so-called lawsuit, the slanders are baseless, since her status has changed after she joined AKUM. The claims made in the article by Avitan's attorney are not factually or legally accurate, and the proper place to decide them is in the context of arbitration."
The Helicon Songs company stated in response, through attorney Ron Klagsblad, who represents it in the arbitration proceeding: "When there is a pending legal proceeding, Helicon Songs does not usually defend itself and assert its claims in the media.
Helikon asserted and will assert its claims to the substance of the facts in the proper place and not in the media.
The case has been going on for about a year and Avitan has laid out its claims in great detail as part of the ongoing arbitration (and these things are well known to attorney Yohai Chai). Against this background, Avitan's appeal to Walla! is a very puzzling culture and rooted in foreign motives. In your appeal, most of the claims are directed towards Akoum and towards society French company 'Ascot Music' which is not at all a party to the proceedings, and not against 'Helicon Songs'.
Helicon explained that it is not a party to the proceedings, and it was beaten by Avitan only because Helicon represented for a short period of time the French company 'Ascot Music', which is no longer represented by 'Helicon Songs.'"
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