Copyright law in the countries of Central Asia

The Berne Convention has not been ratified by the former Soviet Union. Far-reaching work to prepare the USSR for ratification of the Berne Convention was discontinued as a result of the break-up of this state. The Central Asian states acceded to the Berne Convention, independently of each other, after they had formally gained independence. The Commonwealth of Independent States to which the countries of Central Asia belong, has prepared rules for the creation of copyright laws for its members. The Eurasian Economic Union, which was established in 2015, is another international subject that influences the shape of copyright in the countries of Central Asia. The analysis of acts of copyright of the Central Asian states proves, firstly, that the laws of these states were modeled on the guidelines of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and secondly, it proves the high convergence of copyright laws. Differences, sometimes quite significant, reflect the cultural and social specificity of individual Central Asian republics.

The main purpose of the article is to present the principles of functioning of the Republic of Kazakhstan together with descriptions of two branches of law – copyright law and mass media law in Kazakhstan. The beginning of the article is dedicated to the legislature, which is represented by bicameral parliament. Its seats, the legislative process as well as the current political situation are described. Followed by the executive power description together with its representative, the Government of Kazakhstan, which can be formed or dismissed by the president. The way the Government is formed and its authority are presented as well. In the next part of the article is the judiciary of Kazakhstan which is described together with the system of common and special courts followed by description the way the judges are appointed. A separate part in the article is dedicated to the President of Kazakhstan who plays an important role in the authority system and officially does not belong to any branch of the power. While describing the functions of the president, the characteristic title of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, “Elbasy” (the National Leader), which belongs to the current President Nursultan Nazarbayev, is also analyzed together with the features which make this title so special. The next part describes the ruling political party “Nur-Otan” (“the Luminosity of the Motherland”) which has been in charge since the year of 2004. The last part of the article is dedicated to the foundations of the copyright law in Kazakhstan and especially its basic legal acts, the bodies which are called to implement the copyright law and the copyright law specific features. The main legal acts and norms of Kazakhstani mass media law have been described as well, especially in the areas of advertising, print, radio and TV transmissions, rights and obligations of journalists.

Escalation of online copyright infringements resulted in a worldwide shift in laws aimed at fighting illegal file sharing on the Internet. A new model of cooperation between copyright holders and Internet Service Providers was created. This cooperation is called the graduated response. In its most restrictive version this system allows suspension or even termination of the Internet service provided to the ISP’s subscriber who infringed copyrights. Copyright holders definitely need a tool that will help in protecting their interests. In this paper I analyze graduated response system in order to demonstrate its advantages and weaknesses. I conclude that legislators around the world should consider alternative solutions to the issue of online piracy such as the notice-and-slowdown and the notice-and-notice approach. I prove that intellectual property might and should be protected online in an effective manner which respects subscribers’ rights and freedoms, in particular the right to access to the Internet.

This article discusses the issues related to the limits of the European Union competence in external relations in terms of the copyright law with a focus on the problem of defining its particular areas as “commercial” or “non-commercial”. According to Article 207 TFEU, the scope of the common commercial policy (under an exclusive competence of the EU) includes the commercial aspects of the copyright law; thus, it is vital to set a clear demarcation line. Through the analysis of settled case law of the European Court of Justice (incl. judgement in case C-414/11 and in case C-114/12) the authors diagnose numerous problems related to determining whether and to what extent the European Union has the exclusive competence over the intellectual property law. This also leads them to a conclusion that the European Union has a very wide competence as regards the conclusion of agreements concerning intellectual property rights, what poses a substantial risk.

The role of copyright or related rights collecting societies in legal solutions regarding orphan works. The paper analyses in what way collective management organizations can be useful to solve the problem of so-called orphan works. The issue of orphan works (works whose authors or other rightholders are not known or cannot be located or contacted to obtain copyright permissions) is today one of the most important elements of the debate on the future of copyright law. As the number of orphan works keeps growing it becomes a serious problem which requires to be resolved by creating an appropriate legal framework. It seems that the best way of addressing the problem would be to entrust the management of orphan works with specialized entities i. e. copyright or related rights collecting societies. Namely it is worth to consider the extended collective licensing system that proved to be effective in the Nordic countries. However, the Directive 2012/28/EU on certain permitted uses of orphan works which sets out common rules on the use of orphan works is not based of that system. The absence of mutual recognition implies that an extended collective license is valid only in the national territory in which the statutory presumption applies. It would seem that at least diligent search should be entrusted to copyright or related rights collecting societies. They have access to databases on the works, objects of related rights and rightholders and they interact with similar organizations in other Member States. In the Polish copyright law provisions referring to the collective management of copyright do not fulfill its function. Professional, strong, effective and representative copyright collecting societies with well-defined area of activity are needed to solve the problem of orphan works. This requires amendment to the Copyright Law.

Fair use allows to certain limited uses of copyrighted work without permission from the author or right holder. As a limitation and exception to the exclusive right of the author of a creative work fair use is permitted for educational purposes in the Polish law and is covered by the Polish copyright law articles. In view of high importance of education fair use for educational purposes seems to be wholly justified. The paper presents the issue of possible use of copyrighted works in teaching process which comes from the Polish Act on Copyright and Related Rights. It analyses whether the provisions are adequate in the face of the development of digital and web-based information technology. Some amendments to the Polish copyright law are proposed. Another issue discussed in the paper is whether and to what extend so-called Open Educational Resources (OER – freely accessible, openly licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning etc.) can present a real alternative to fair use.

The paper presents the results of the analysis of issues concerning the distribution in Poland. Distribution, in the context of the copyright law, is the compensation for the reproduction of works used with permit by private individuals for the personal purpose. Depending on the form of the exploitation of work or the subject of right (authors, performers, publishers or producers of phonograms and video recording), the fee should be paid. Fees for the use of protected works are collected from users based on the license agreements. Collective societies involved in the collect and division of the fees for the use of works within the permitted personal use. Article 23 of copyright law established the principle for unpaid permitted private use. There is no claim for payment of remuneration to the collective society or to users, if the works are copied within its own personal use. Exploitation of the works on the statutory license for private use is permitted, therefore, in connection with eg. common interests. Moreover, the relationships established through the internet are not excluded. Specificity is the fact that nowadays the reprographic fee of media is borne by entities that are themselves do not use of the works and do not encroach on the symptoms of copyright as an exclusive right. Holders of reprographic equipment, who are already established in the field of reproduction of works for personal use by third parties are obliged to pay, through the organization of collective management of copyright and related rights, duties amounting to 3% of the proceeds of this account on behalf of authors and publishers, unless the reproduction is carried out under an agreement with an eligible (eg. the author or publisher). Reprographic fees, so-called copyright levies or fees, which are counted towards to the blank media and copying machines are paid by all customers. Fees are paid by producers and importers of copying devices and blank media. In the field of reprographic fees, copyright is obsolete and should be complemented with modern audiovisual equipment, including tablets, smartphones etc.