On 5 March 2003 the Parliament adopted Law on Amendment of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights. This law approved the new wording of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights the provisions whereof had been drafted considering the Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2002 on Harmonisation of Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society, the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty and the 1996 WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The new wording of the law is approximated to the provisions of Part III Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights of the WTO TRIPS Agreement. By virtue of this law, the objects of the copyright and related rights have not changed substantially. Static and interactive websites are recognised as an independent object of copyright, also recognising the electronic form of expression of objects. Only natural persons are recognised as subjects of the copyright, likewise in the previous law. The new wording of the law specifies the property rights of authors to the extent that the author should also be paid the royalty for publication of the work, including making the work publicly available via computer networks (on the internet). The law has retained the exceptions to (limitations on) the copyright enabling a natural person, without permission of the author or any other copyright subject, to reproduce solely for personal usage, seeking no direct or indirect commercial aims, no more than one copy of the work issued or otherwise made public, provided that such reproduction is a single act. Article 20 of the law establishes that while reproducing an audiovisual work or the work recorded in phonogram, the author of the work or his/her successor are entitled, together with the performers and the producers of audiovisual works and phonograms, or their successors, to receive certain remuneration to be determined as percentage of the wholesale price of empty audio and audiovisual data storage media meant for personal reproduction (except for the media meant for export, professional needs and the needs of persons with aural and sight disability). The fee will be paid by the producers and importers of analogous and digital audio and audiovisual data storage media meant for personal reproduction, except for the cases when empty media are imported solely for personal usage (with the passenger’s luggage). The amount of the fee is established by the Government. The fee may not exceed 6 percent of the wholesale price of an empty audio or audiovisual data storage medium. The fee is collected (received), allocated and paid by collective administration associations. The importers must pay the fee to the account of the association of collective administration of the copyright and related rights approved by the institution authorised by the Government, during the customs clearance of goods prior to the issue of goods for free circulation, unless otherwise stipulated in the agreement between the importer and the collective administration association. The provisions of the law in respect of taxation of empty audio and audiovisual data storage media will come into effect as of 1 January 2004.
The law also defines temporary reproduction of copyright objects. The law permits to perform, without consent of the author or any other subject of the copyright and without a royalty, any temporary reproduction actions which are shortterm or accidental, form an integral and substantial part of the technological process and are performed in order the mediator could ensure an effective transmission of information via computer networks to the third persons or to ensure subsequent lawful (to the extent permitted by the subject of the copyright or not limited by this law) usage of the work, provided that such temporary reproduction acts have no economic value as taken separately.
Article 39 of the law clearly specifies that the agreements on the proofreading of works, the rendering of training, consulting, organisational and technical services or any other services will not be deemed copyright agreements. As well as the agreements which do not have as their subject the assignment or granting of the authors’ property rights to the work will not be deemed copyright agreements either.
Pursuant to Article 40 of the law, the copyright agreement on assignment of property rights or the copyright licence agreement must contain the following: 1) the title of the work (the titles of foreign authors’ works are specified in the original language as well), except for the licences issued by collective administration associations; 2) the authors’ property rights assigned or granted (ways of usage of the work), the type of a licence (exclusive or non-exclusive licence); 3) the territory of validity; 4) the term of validity; 5) the amount of the royalty, the order and terms of payment; 6) procedure for resolution of disputes between the parties and the liability; 7) other conditions of the agreement deemed essential by the parties. If the copyright agreement does not specify any duration term for which the property rights are assigned or the licence is granted, any contracting party may terminate the agreement upon oneyear prior written notice. If the copyright agreement does not specify the territory of validity, the property rights are deemed to have been assigned on the territory of the Republic of Lithuania. If all the property rights of the authors are assigned under the copyright agreement, such rights are deemed to have been assigned only for the ways of usage of the work provided in the agreement. Unless the copyright agreement does not specify the ways of usage of the work, the agreement is deemed to have been made only for the ways of usage of the work which are necessary for the parties to achieve the intention of the agreement.
Article 42 of the law establishes that in view of the object of copyright agreements the latter can be executed in various forms: 1) a copyright agreement on assignment of property rights, a copyright licence agreement and a copyright agreement on ordering of a work, all made in writing; 2) a written form of the agreement is not compulsory to the agreements concerning publication of the works in periodicals; 3) in cases when computer programs recorded in material data storage media and electronic databases are distributed via the trade network, the right to use computer programs or electronic data bases is vested according to the licence agreement which is provided to the buyer in the computer program or database package (package licence). The conditions set forth in the package licence are compulsory to the user of the computer program or the database. They must be presented in observance of the requirements set by the Law on Protection of Consumer Rights and the Law on the State Language; 4) when computer programs or electronic databases are presented via computer network, the right to use the computer program or the database may be granted to the user under a licence agreement provided in electronic form and subject to prior approval by the user before starting to use such computer program or electronic database.
The law contains certain novelties related to the defence of the rights protected under this law. The offenders of such rights who reproduce and disseminate unlawful copies of the works or other objects, that violate the rights of the subjects of the copyright, related rights or sui generis rights, may be obliged by the court to immediately furnish all the information about the origin of such copies, in particular about the names and addresses of the producers, suppliers (distributors), clients, the channels of distribution of unlawful copies of the works, as well as the amount of the produced, supplied, received or ordered unlawful copies. In protection of their rights, the subjects of the copyright and related rights are entitled to apply to court and demand to prohibit the mediator from rendering the services via computer networks to the third persons who use such services thereby infringing the copyright or related rights. The prohibition to render such services embraces the suspension of transmission via the network of the information related to the infringement of the copyright and related rights, or, if the mediator is technically capable, the elimination of the information infringing the copyright or related rights, or the prohibition to have access to the information infringing the copyright or related rights. Such enforcement of the court decision is a primary action aimed at protection of the infringed rights and does not release the mediator from the liability for the actions or omission related to the storage or supply of such information effected prior to enforcement of such decision. The law establishes that the subject of the copyright or related rights may claim compensation from the offender instead of the damages incurred due to infringement of the copyright, the related rights and/or sui generis rights. The amount of the compensation within the range from 10 to 1,000 minimum living standards (currently 1 minimum living standard amounts to 125 Litas) will be established by the court taking into account the offender’s guilt, property status, the reasons of unlawful actions and other circumstances relevant to the case, as well as the criteria of fairness, justice and reasonability. |
