The Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) this week announced the opening of a European subsidiary, RightsDirect. Like the CCC does for clients in America, RightsDirect will offer rightsholders and users in Europe a voluntary licensing system including the right to share content worldwide from millions of information sources. In a statement, CCC president and chief executive officer Tracey Armstrong said “increasing market demand and existing customer feedback,” led to the European effort, which comes just weeks before the 2010 International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO) annual general meeting, hosted by CCC, in Boston, Mass. Oct. 25-28.
CCC officials also announced the following appointments: Kim Zwollo will serve as general manager, responsible for establishing and leading RightsDirect, building key relationships throughout Europe, and driving the overall growth of European corporate license sales. Prior to joining RightsDirect, Zwollo worked for Springer Science and Business Media in various international roles for nine years. Most recently he was executive v-p, sales for the EMEA (South Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region, which included responsibility for third party licensing and rights and permissions.
Victoriano Colodrón will serve as executive director, Collective Licensing and Operations, tasked with expanding relationships with European publishers, authors and their representatives. Colodrón served from 2000 to 2009 as deputy CEO of Centro Español de Derechos Reprográficos (CEDRO), the Spanish Reproduction Rights Organization. Kate Alzapiedi has been named business development director, working directly with European-headquartered corporations to meet their licensing needs. Alzapiedi has served in various roles at Elsevier Publishing and Excerpta Medical Communications.
Founded in 1978, the not-for-profit CCC promotes licensing solutions that let academic institutions, businesses, and individuals secure permission to use copyright-protected materials, and compensating authors, publishers, and other content creators.
