National Center of Intellectual Property
The Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Amendments to the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Copyright and Related Rights” Comes into Force
26 may 2020
Interesting
On May 27, 2020, the Law of the Republic of Belarus No. 216-Z “On Amendments to the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Copyright and Related Rights” (hereinafter – the Law), signed by the President of the Republic of Belarus on July 15, 2019, enters into force.
The draft Law was developed in accordance with paragraph 5 of the draft law preparation plan for 2017, approved by the Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated December 31, 2016 No. 520, and paragraph 5 of the draft law preparation (participation in the preparation) plan of the republican governmental bodies in 2017, approved by the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated February 8, 2017 No. 103.
The Law provides for:
- development of the terminological system;
- specification of the scope of moral rights in relation to the use of audiovisual works (limitation of the author’s right to recall and disclose audiovisual works);
- broadening the range of permissible cases of free use of legally published works in socially significant areas (ensuring the educational process);
- bringing the article concerning blind and visually impaired persons in accordance with the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled, signed in Marrakesh on June 27, 2013;
- enhancement of execution of collective management of economic rights, including:
- establishing mandates of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus to set the minimum amount of remuneration for the use of phonograms published for commercial purposes, as well as the procedure for its collection, distribution and payment;
- establishing the procedure for collecting remuneration for the use of works for private purposes;
- introducing the liability of CMOs for exceeding the maximum amount of deductions from the remuneration collected by CMOs under the Agreement on the Procedure for Management of Copyright and Related Rights on a Collective Basis, signed in Moscow on December 11, 2017 (hereinafter – the Agreement);
- introducing the rule of mandatory annual audit of CMOs in accordance with the Agreement;
- improvement of the system of contracts concluded during the creation and use of copyright and related rights objects, as well as the legal regulation of individual agreements in this field (introducing copyright agreement guidelines in the license agreement);
- reduction of the minimum amount of compensation for infringement of copyright and related rights from ten to one base rate;
- exemption from civil liability in the form of compensation for infringement of exclusive right when telecom operators, providers of telecommunication services distribute television programs included in the compulsory publicly available television program package and others.