The draft law for “collective management of copyright and related rights, multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online uses within the internal market and other cultural issues” is currently under public consultation up to January, 22th 2016.
The draft law in question introduces a separate and lengthy legal instrument for collective rights management, which abolishes the respective provisions of the Law No. 2121/1993 (hereinafter Copyright Act). It basically reforms the legal and operational framework of Collective Management Organizations, by transferring the Directive 2014/26/EU in Greek legal order.
Beyond that, however, the draft law introduces several major amendments on questions not related with collective rights management. In particular, the penultimate article 69, entitled “abolished and other provisions” provides, among others, the following modifications covering various fields of copyright law:
- Fair compensation levy for private copying on computers
Computers are added to the list of technical devices of art. 18 Copyright Act subject to fair remuneration for private copying. Importers or producers of computers are obliged to pay a fair remuneration levy which amounts in 2% of the device’s value.
- Mandatory collective management of cable retransmission right
By transposing art. 9 and 10 of the Cable Directive into Greek law, the draft law introduces mandatory collective management for the right of cable retransmission of broadcasts and the right of secondary, unaltered and unabridged cable broadcasting of radio&TV programs (simulcasting). Moreover, the introduced mandatory collective management mechanism is equipped with an extended collective licensing pattern according to which the collecting society which manages rights of the same category shall be deemed to be mandated to manage the rights of a rightholder who has not transferred the management of his rights to a collecting society.
- Public performance of music repertoire not represented by a Collective Management Organisation
According to the new proposed provision attached to article 63 para. 2 of the Copyright Act, in case of public performance of music repertoire not represented by a Collective Management Organisation, the necessary administrative (municipal) permission for lawful performance of music in establishments and public spaces shall be granted upon the mere submission of a declaration in honour stating that the performed repertoire is not managed by a collective management organization.
- Fine for illegal reproduction of phonograms
The draft law introduces a new controversial provision (art. 65 A, para. 3 Copyright Act) according to which «the person that reproduces unlawfully and in violation of the provisions of the present law phonograms stored in any technical means of storage, including hard discs either integrated or not to a computer, shall be punished with an administrative fine of one thousand (1000) euros.”
- Innovative administrative procedure against online copyright infringement
Α noteworthy novelty of the draft law in question is the introduction of an administrative procedure for online copyright and related rights infringement which mainly targets internet service providers (internet users are explicitly out of scope of the mechanism). In brief, the proposed new article 66E provides for the creation of a collective administrative body called “Committee for the notification of online copyright and related rights infringement”. In case of online infringement, rightholders will be entitled to apply to the Committee and ask for protection. In case of grounded inquiry, the Committee shall notify the ISPs and where possible, the hosting provider and/or the administrator of the website(s) in question regarding the infringement and the initiation of the administrative procedure for copyright protection. Unless voluntary compliance of the recipients of the notification, the Committee will issue a decision ordering, among others, the removal of the infringing content or the blocking of the access to this content. It should be mentioned that this is intended to be a complementary remedy, available in parallel with the regular judicial remedies.
- Abolishment of communication secrecy for copyright infringements
A provision included in the draft law allows for the abolishment of secrecy for the detection of copyright and related rights infringement felonies.
The Draft law has already raised several controversies among rightholders and users, while its final content is expected to be arranged after the end of the public consultation, within the following weeks.
Intellectual Property Law News from Greece by Dr. Theodoros Chiou (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)