31.05.2021 10:34
On April 5, 2017, the Act no. 102/2017 Coll., amending act no. No. 121/2000 Coll., on Copyright, Related Rights and Amending some Laws (hereinafter “Amendment to the Copyright Act”, or “Amendment”) was published as the twentieth amendment to the Copyright Act since its adoption. The Amendment harmonizes domestic legislation with EU law but also introduces changes of other nature. The Amendment will come into effect on the fifteenth day following its publication in the Collection of Laws.
The Amendment affects most extensively Title IV of the Copyright Act, i.e. collective management of copyright, and transposes into the Czech legal system the Directive 2014/26/EU on the collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the internal market. More than sixty sections of the Amendment thus cover collective managers (e.g. Dilia or OSA in the Czech Republic) as well as conditions for their structure and membership, and regulate their external relationships (e.g. through transparent tariffs) and dispute settlement procedures.
Moreover, the Amendment has been adopted to cater to online music platforms (e.g. YouTube, Spotify) by introducing and defining terms and conditions for licensing in multiple areas within the EU. Whether this approach will help remedy violations of copyright enabled by modern technologies at least partially remains to be seen after i tis applied in practice.
Other important changes include for instance a newly introduced license for the use of copyright works for the purpose of caricature and parody (new Section 38g of the Act).
While the Amendment clarifies and tightens conditions for collective management providers, it relaxes the regime for libraries and archives. Overall, the Amendment makes the rules clearer and thus more transparent.
Intellectual property law, including copyright, is one of the areas where we offer our legal services.