Notice: Kyrgyz Republic ratified to WIPO Copyright Treaty of July 24, 1998

(adopted in Geneva on December 20, 1996)

 

 

 

 

 

WIPO Copyright Treaty

 

Preamble

The Contracting Parties,

Desiring to develop and maintain the protection of the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works in a manner as effective and uniform as possible,

Recognizing the need to introduce new international rules and clarify the interpretation of certain existing rules in order to provide adequate solutions to the questions raised by new economic, social, cultural and technological developments,

Recognizing the profound impact of the development and convergence of information and communication technologies on the creation and use of literary and artistic works,

Emphasizing the outstanding significance of copyright protection as an incentive for literary and artistic creation,

Recognizing the need to maintain a balance between the rights of authors and the larger public interest, particularly education, research and access to information, as reflected in the Berne Convention,

Have agreed as follows:

 

Article 1. Relation to the Berne Convention

(1) This Treaty is a special agreement within the meaning of Article 20 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, as regards Contracting Parties that are countries of the Union established by that Convention. This Treaty shall not have any connection with treaties other than the Berne Convention, nor shall it prejudice any rights and obligations under any other treaties.

 

(2) Nothing in this Treaty shall derogate from existing obligations that Contracting Parties have to each other under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

 

(3) Hereinafter, “Berne Convention” shall refer to the Paris Act of July 24, 1971 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

 

(4) Contracting Parties shall comply with Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix of the Berne Convention.2

 

Article 2. Scope of Copyright Protection

Copyright protection extends to expressions and not to ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such.

 

 

Article 3. Application of Articles 2 to 6 of the Berne Convention

Contracting Parties shall apply mutatis mutandis the provisions of Articles 2 to 6 of the Berne Convention in respect of the protection provided for in this Treaty.3

 

Article 4. Computer Programs

Computer programs are protected as literary works within the meaning of Article 2 of the Berne Convention. Such protection applies to computer programs, whatever may be the mode or form of their expression.4

 

Article 5. Compilations of Data (Databases)

Compilations of data or other material, in any form, which by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents constitute intellectual creations, are protected as such. This protection does not extend to the data or the material itself and is without prejudice to any copyright subsisting in the data or material contained in the compilation.5

 

Article 6. Right of Distribution

(1) Authors of literary and artistic works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing the making available to the public of the original and copies of their works through sale or other transfer of ownership.

(2) Nothing in this Treaty shall affect the freedom of Contracting Parties to determine the conditions, if any, under which the exhaustion of the right in paragraph (1) applies after the first sale or other transfer of ownership of the original or a copy of the work with the authorization of the author.6

 

Article 7. Right of Rental

(1) Authors of

(i) computer programs;

(ii) cinematographic works; and

(iii) works embodied in phonograms, as determined in the national law of Contracting Parties, shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing commercial rental to the public of the originals or copies of their works.

(2)Paragraph (1) shall not apply

(i) in the case of computer programs, where the program itself is not the essential object of the rental; and

(ii) in the case of cinematographic works, unless such commercial rental has led to widespread copying of such works materially impairing the exclusive right of reproduction.

(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (1), a Contracting Party that, on April 15, 1994, had and continues to have in force a system of equitable remuneration of authors for the rental of copies of their works embodied in phonograms may maintain that system provided that the commercial rental of works embodied in phonograms is not giving rise to the material impairment of the exclusive right of reproduction of authors.78

 

Article 8. Right of Communication to the Public

Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 11(1)(ii), 11bis(1)(i) and (ii), 11ter(1)(ii), 14(1)(ii) and 14bis(1) of the Berne Convention, authors of literary and artistic works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing any communication to the public of their works, by wire or wireless means, including the making available to the public of their works in such a way that members of the public may access these works from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.9

 

Article 9. Duration of the Protection of Photographic Works

In respect of photographic works, the Contracting Parties shall not apply the provisions of Article 7(4) of the Berne Convention.

 

Article 10. Limitations and Exceptions

(1) Contracting Parties may, in their national legislation, provide for limitations of or exceptions to the rights granted to authors of literary and artistic works under this Treaty in certain special cases that do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.

(2) Contracting Parties shall, when applying the Berne Convention, confine any limitations of or exceptions to rights provided for therein to certain special cases that do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.10

 

Article 11. Obligations concerning Technological Measures

Contracting Parties shall provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by authors in connection with the exercise of their rights under this Treaty or the Berne Convention and that restrict acts, in respect of their works, which are not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted by law.

 

Article 12. Obligations concerning Rights Management Information

(1) Contracting Parties shall provide adequate and effective legal remedies against any person knowingly performing any of the following acts knowing, or with respect to civil remedies having reasonable grounds to know, that it will induce, enable, facilitate or conceal an infringement of any right covered by this Treaty or the Berne Convention:

(i) to remove or alter any electronic rights management information without authority;

(ii) to distribute, import for distribution, broadcast or communicate to the public, without authority, works or copies of works knowing that electronic rights management information has been removed or altered without authority.

(2) As used in this Article, “rights management information” means information which identifies the work, the author of the work, the owner of any right in the work, or information about the terms and conditions of use of the work, and any numbers or codes that represent such information, when any of these items of information is attached to a copy of a work or appears in connection with the communication of a work to the public.11

 

Article 13. Application in Time

Contracting Parties shall apply the provisions of Article 18 of the Berne Convention to all protection provided for in this Treaty.

 

Article 14. Provisions on Enforcement of Rights

(1) Contracting Parties undertake to adopt, in accordance with their legal systems, the measures necessary to ensure the application of this Treaty.

(2) Contracting Parties shall ensure that enforcement procedures are available under their law so as to permit effective action against any act of infringement of rights covered by this Treaty, including expeditious remedies to prevent infringements and remedies which constitute a deterrent to further infringements.

 

Article 15. Assembly

(1)

(a) The Contracting Parties shall have an Assembly.

(b) Each Contracting Party shall be represented by one delegate who may be assisted by alternate delegates, advisors and experts.

(c) The expenses of each delegation shall be borne by the Contracting Party that has appointed the delegation. The Assembly may ask the World Intellectual Property Organization (hereinafter referred to as “WIPO”) to grant financial assistance to facilitate the participation of delegations of Contracting Parties that are regarded as developing countries in conformity with the established practice of the General Assembly of the United Nations or that are countries in transition to a market economy.

(2)

(a) The Assembly shall deal with matters concerning the maintenance and development of this Treaty and the application and operation of this Treaty.

(b) The Assembly shall perform the function allocated to it under Article 17(2) in respect of the admission of certain intergovernmental organizations to become party to this Treaty.

(c) The Assembly shall decide the convocation of any diplomatic conference for the revision of this Treaty and give the necessary instructions to the Director General of WIPO for the preparation of such diplomatic conference.

(3)

(a) Each Contracting Party that is a State shall have one vote and shall vote only in its own name.

(b) Any Contracting Party that is an intergovernmental organization may participate in the vote, in place of its Member States, with a number of votes equal to the number of its Member States which are party to this Treaty. No such intergovernmental organization shall participate in the vote if any one of its Member States exercises its right to vote and vice versa.

(4) The Assembly shall meet in ordinary session once every two years upon convocation by the Director General of WIPO.

(5) The Assembly shall establish its own rules of procedure, including the convocation of extraordinary sessions, the requirements of a quorum and, subject to the provisions of this Treaty, the required majority for various kinds of decisions.

 

Article 16. International Bureau

The International Bureau of WIPO shall perform the administrative tasks concerning the Treaty.

 

Article 17. Eligibility for Becoming Party to the Treaty

(1) Any Member State of WIPO may become party to this Treaty.

(2) The Assembly may decide to admit any intergovernmental organization to become party to this Treaty which declares that it is competent in respect of, and has its own legislation binding on all its Member States on, matters covered by this Treaty and that it has been duly authorized, in accordance with its internal procedures, to become party to this Treaty.

(3) The European Community, having made the declaration referred to in the preceding paragraph in the Diplomatic Conference that has adopted this Treaty, may become party to this Treaty.

 

Article 18. Rights and Obligations under the Treaty

Subject to any specific provisions to the contrary in this Treaty, each Contracting Party shall enjoy all of the rights and assume all of the obligations under this Treaty.

 

Article 19. Signature of the Treaty

This Treaty shall be open for signature until December 31, 1997, by any Member State of WIPO and by the European Community.

 

Article 20. Entry into Force of the Treaty

This Treaty shall enter into force three months after 30 instruments of ratification or accession by States have been deposited with the Director General of WIPO.

 

Article 21. Effective Date of Becoming Party to the Treaty

This Treaty shall bind:

(i) the 30 States referred to in Article 20, from the date on which this Treaty has entered into force;

(ii) each other State from the expiration of three months from the date on which the State has deposited its instrument with the Director General of WIPO;

(iii) the European Community, from the expiration of three months after the deposit of its instrument of ratification or accession if such instrument has been deposited after the entry into force of this Treaty according to Article 20, or, three months after the entry into force of this Treaty if such instrument has been deposited before the entry into force of this Treaty;

(iv) any other intergovernmental organization that is admitted to become party to this Treaty, from the expiration of three months after the deposit of its instrument of accession.

 

Article 22. No Reservations to the Treaty

No reservation to this Treaty shall be admitted.

 

Article 23. Denunciation of the Treaty

This Treaty may be denounced by any Contracting Party by notification addressed to the Director General of WIPO. Any denunciation shall take effect one year from the date on which the Director General of WIPO received the notification.

 

Article 24. Languages of the Treaty

(1) This Treaty is signed in a single original in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish languages, the versions in all these languages being equally authentic.

(2) An official text in any language other than those referred to in paragraph (1) shall be established by the Director General of WIPO on the request of an interested party, after consultation with all the interested parties. For the purposes of this paragraph, “interested party” means any Member State of WIPO whose official language, or one of whose official languages, is involved and the European Community, and any other intergovernmental organization that may become party to this Treaty, if one of its official languages is involved.

 

Article 25. Depositary

The Director General of WIPO is the depositary of this Treaty.

 

BERNE CONVENTION

for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works

of September 9, 1886, completed at PARIS on May 4, 1896, revised at BERLIN on November 13, 1908, completed at BERNE on March 20, 1914, revised at ROME on June 2, 1928, at BRUSSELS on June 26, 1948, at STOCKHOLM on July 14, 1967, and at PARIS on July 24, 1971, and amended on September 28, 1979

 

The countries of the Union, being equally animated by the desire to protect, in as effective and uniform a manner as possible, the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works,

Recognizing the importance of the work of the Revision Conference held at Stockholm in 1967,

Have resolved to revise the Act adopted by the Stockholm Conference, while maintaining without change Articles 1 to 20 and 22 to 26 of that Act.

Consequently, the undersigned Plenipotentiaries, having presented their full powers, recognized as in good and due form, have agreed as follows:

 

Article 1. Establishment of a Union 3

The countries to which this Convention applies constitute a Union for the protection of the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works.

 

Article 2. Protected Works: 1. “Literary and artistic works”; 2. Possible requirement of fixation; 3. Derivative works; 4. Official texts; 5. Collections; 6. Obligation to protect; beneficiaries of protection; 7. Works of applied art and industrial designs; 8. News

(1) The expression “literary and artistic works” shall include every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression, such as books, pamphlets and other writings; lectures, addresses, sermons and other works of the same nature; dramatic or dramatico-musical works; choreographic works and entertainments in dumb show; musical compositions with or without words; cinematographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to cinematography; works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving and lithography; photographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to photography; works of applied art; illustrations, maps, plans, sketches and three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture or science.

 

(2) It shall, however, be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to prescribe that works in general or any specified categories of works shall not be protected unless they have been fixed in some material form.

(3) Translations, adaptations, arrangements of music and other alterations of a literary or artistic work shall be protected as original works without prejudice to the copyright in the original work.

(4) It shall be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to determine the protection to be granted to official texts of a legislative, administrative and legal nature, and to official translations of such texts.

(5) Collections of literary or artistic works such as encyclopaedias and anthologies which, by reason of the selection and arrangement of their contents, constitute intellectual creations shall be protected as such, without prejudice to the copyright in each of the works forming part of such collections.

(6) The works mentioned in this Article shall enjoy protection in all countries of the Union. This protection shall operate for the benefit of the author and his successors in title.

(7) Subject to the provisions of Article 7(4) of this Convention, it shall be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to determine the extent of the application of their laws to works of applied art and industrial designs and models, as well as the conditions under which such works, designs and models shall be protected. Works protected in the country of origin solely as designs and models shall be entitled in another country of the Union only to such special protection as is granted in that country to designs and models; however, if no such special protection is granted in that country, such works shall be protected as artistic works.

(8) The protection of this Convention shall not apply to news of the day or to miscellaneous facts having the character of mere items of press information.

 

Article 2bis. Possible Limitation of Protection of Certain Works: 1. Certain speeches; 2. Certain uses of lectures and addresses; 3. Right to make collections of such works

(1) It shall be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to exclude, wholly or in part, from the protection provided by the preceding Article political speeches and speeches delivered in the course of legal proceedings.

(2) It shall also be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to determine the conditions under which lectures, addresses and other works of the same nature which are delivered in public may be reproduced by the press, broadcast, communicated to the public by wire and made the subject of public communication as envisaged in Article 11bis(1) of this Convention, when such use is justified by the informatory purpose.

(3) Nevertheless, the author shall enjoy the exclusive right of making a collection of his works mentioned in the preceding paragraphs.

 

Article 3. Criteria of Eligibility for Protection: 1. Nationality of author; place of publication of work;  2. Residence of author; 3: “Published” works;  4. “Simultaneously published” works

(1) The protection of this Convention shall apply to:

(a) authors who are nationals of one of the countries of the Union, for their works, whether published or not;

(b) authors who are not nationals of one of the countries of the Union, for their works first published in one of those countries, or simultaneously in a country outside the Union and in a country of the Union.

(2) Authors who are not nationals of one of the countries of the Union but who have their habitual residence in one of them shall, for the purposes of this Convention, be assimilated to nationals of that country.

(3) The expression “published works” means works published with the consent of their authors, whatever may be the means of manufacture of the copies, provided that the availability of such copies has been such as to satisfy the reasonable requirements of the public, having regard to the nature of the work. The performance of a dramatic, dramatico-musical, cinematographic or musical work, the public recitation of a literary work, the communication by wire or the broadcasting of literary or artistic works, the exhibition of a work of art and the construction of a work of architecture shall not constitute publication.

(4) A work shall be considered as having been published simultaneously in several countries if it has been published in two or more countries within thirty days of its first publication.

 

Article 4. Criteria of Eligibility for Protection of Cinematographic Works, Works of Architecture and Certain Artistic Works

The protection of this Convention shall apply, even if the conditions of Article 3 are not fulfilled, to:

(a) authors of cinematographic works the maker of which has his headquarters or habitual residence in one of the countries of the Union;

(b) authors of works of architecture erected in a country of the Union or of other artistic works incorporated in a building or other structure located in a country of the Union.

 

Article 5. Rights Guaranteed: 1. and 2. Outside the country of origin; 3. In the country of origin; 4. “Country of origin”

(1) Authors shall enjoy, in respect of works for which they are protected under this Convention, in countries of the Union other than the country of origin, the rights which their respective laws do now or may hereafter grant to their nationals, as well as the rights specially granted by this Convention.

(2) The enjoyment and the exercise of these rights shall not be subject to any formality; such enjoyment and such exercise shall be independent of the existence of protection in the country of origin of the work. Consequently, apart from the provisions of this Convention, the extent of protection, as well as the means of redress afforded to the author to protect his rights, shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the country where protection is claimed.

(3) Protection in the country of origin is governed by domestic law. However, when the author is not a national of the country of origin of the work for which he is protected under this Convention, he shall enjoy in that country the same rights as national authors.

(4) The country of origin shall be considered to be:

(a) in the case of works first published in a country of the Union, that country; in the case of works published simultaneously in several countries of the Union which grant different terms of protection, the country whose legislation grants the shortest term of protection;

(b) in the case of works published simultaneously in a country outside the Union and in a country of the Union, the latter country;

(c) in the case of unpublished works or of works first published in a country outside the Union, without simultaneous publication in a country of the Union, the country of the Union of which the author is a national, provided that:

(i) when these are cinematographic works the maker of which has his headquarters or his habitual residence in a country of the Union, the country of origin shall be that country, and

(ii) when these are works of architecture erected in a country of the Union or other artistic works incorporated in a building or other structure located in a country of the Union, the country of origin shall be that country.

 

Article 6. Possible Restriction of Protection in Respect of Certain Works of Nationals of Certain Countries Outside the Union: 1. In the country of the first publication and in other countries; 2. No retroactivity; 3. Notice

(1) Where any country outside the Union fails to protect in an adequate manner the works of authors who are nationals of one of the countries of the Union, the latter country may restrict the protection given to the works of authors who are, at the date of the first publication thereof, nationals of the other country and are not habitually resident in one of the countries of the Union. If the country of first publication avails itself of this right, the other countries of the Union shall not be required to grant to works thus subjected to special treatment a wider protection than that granted to them in the country of first publication.

(2) No restrictions introduced by virtue of the preceding paragraph shall affect the rights which an author may have acquired in respect of a work published in a country of the Union before such restrictions were put into force.

(3) The countries of the Union which restrict the grant of copyright in accordance with this Article shall give notice thereof to the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (hereinafter designated as “the Director General”) by a written declaration specifying the countries in regard to which protection is restricted, and the restrictions to which rights of authors who are nationals of those countries are subjected. The Director General shall immediately communicate this declaration to all the countries of the Union.

 

Article 6bis. Moral Rights: 1. To claim authorship; to object to certain modifications and other derogatory actions; 2. After the author’s death; 3. Means of redress

(1) Independently of the author’s economic rights, and even after the transfer of the said rights, the author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation.

(2) The rights granted to the author in accordance with the preceding paragraph shall, after his death, be maintained, at least until the expiry of the economic rights, and shall be exercisable by the persons or institutions authorized by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed. However, those countries whose legislation, at the moment of their ratification of or accession to this Act, does not provide for the protection after the death of the author of all the rights set out in the preceding paragraph may provide that some of these rights may, after his death, cease to be maintained.

(3) The means of redress for safeguarding the rights granted by this Article shall be governed by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed.

 

Article 7. Term of Protection: 1. Generally; 2. For cinematographic works; 3. For anonymous and pseudonymous works; 4. For photographic works and works of applied art; 5. Starting date of computation; 6. Longer terms; 7. Shorter terms; 8. Applicable law; “comparison” of terms

(1) The term of protection granted by this Convention shall be the life of the author and fifty years after his death.

(2) However, in the case of cinematographic works, the countries of the Union may provide that the term of protection shall expire fifty years after the work has been made available to the public with the consent of the author, or, failing such an event within fifty years from the making of such a work, fifty years after the making.

(3) In the case of anonymous or pseudonymous works, the term of protection granted by this Convention shall expire fifty years after the work has been lawfully made available to the public. However, when the pseudonym adopted by the author leaves no doubt as to his identity, the term of protection shall be that provided in paragraph (1). If the author of an anonymous or pseudonymous work discloses his identity during the above-mentioned period, the term of protection applicable shall be that provided in paragraph (1). The countries of the Union shall not be required to protect anonymous or pseudonymous works in respect of which it is reasonable to presume that their author has been dead for fifty years.

(4) It shall be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to determine the term of protection of photographic works and that of works of applied art in so far as they are protected as artistic works; however, this term shall last at least until the end of a period of twenty-five years from the making of such a work.

(5) The term of protection subsequent to the death of the author and the terms provided by paragraphs (2), (3) and (4) shall run from the date of death or of the event referred to in those paragraphs, but such terms shall always be deemed to begin on the first of January of the year following the death or such event.

(6) The countries of the Union may grant a term of protection in excess of those provided by the preceding paragraphs.

(7) Those countries of the Union bound by the Rome Act of this Convention which grant, in their national legislation in force at the time of signature of the present Act, shorter terms of protection than those provided for in the preceding paragraphs shall have the right to maintain such terms when ratifying or acceding to the present Act.

(8) In any case, the term shall be governed by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed; however, unless the legislation of that country otherwise provides, the term shall not exceed the term fixed in the country of origin of the work.

 

Article 7bis. Term of Protection for Works of Joint Authorship

The provisions of the preceding Article shall also apply in the case of a work of joint authorship, provided that the terms measured from the death of the author shall be calculated from the death of the last surviving author.

 

Article 8. Right of Translation

Authors of literary and artistic works protected by this Convention shall enjoy the exclusive right of making and of authorizing the translation of their works throughout the term of protection of their rights in the original works.

 

Article 9. Right of Reproduction: 1. Generally;  2. Possible exceptions; 3. Sound and visual recordings

(1) Authors of literary and artistic works protected by this Convention shall have the exclusive right of authorizing the reproduction of these works, in any manner or form.

(2) It shall be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to permit the reproduction of such works in certain special cases, provided that such reproduction does not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.

(3) Any sound or visual recording shall be considered as a reproduction for the purposes of this Convention.

 

Article 10. Certain Free Uses of Works: 1. Quotations; 2. Illustrations for teaching; 3. Indication of source and author

(1) It shall be permissible to make quotations from a work which has already been lawfully made available to the public, provided that their making is compatible with fair practice, and their extent does not exceed that justified by the purpose, including quotations from newspaper articles and periodicals in the form of press summaries.

(2) It shall be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union, and for special agreements existing or to be concluded between them, to permit the utilization, to the extent justified by the purpose, of literary or artistic works by way of illustration in publications, broadcasts or sound or visual recordings for teaching, provided such utilization is compatible with fair practice.

(3) Where use is made of works in accordance with the preceding paragraphs of this Article, mention shall be made of the source, and of the name of the author if it appears thereon.

 

Article 10bis. Further Possible Free Uses of Works: 1. Of certain articles and broadcast works; 2. Of works seen or heard in connection with current events

(1) It shall be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to permit the reproduction by the press, the broadcasting or the communication to the public by wire of articles published in newspapers or periodicals on current economic, political or religious topics, and of broadcast works of the same character, in cases in which the reproduction, broadcasting or such communication thereof is not expressly reserved. Nevertheless, the source must always be clearly indicated; the legal consequences of a breach of this obligation shall be determined by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed.

(2) It shall also be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to determine the conditions under which, for the purpose of reporting current events by means of photography, cinematography, broadcasting or communication to the public by wire, literary or artistic works seen or heard in the course of the event may, to the extent justified by the informatory purpose, be reproduced and made available to the public.

 

Article 11. Certain Rights in Dramatic and Musical Works: 1. Right of public performance and of communication to the public of a performance; 2. In respect of translations

(1) Authors of dramatic, dramatico-musical and musical works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing:

(i) the public performance of their works, including such public performance by any means or process;

(ii) any communication to the public of the performance of their works.

(2) Authors of dramatic or dramatico-musical works shall enjoy, during the full term of their rights in the original works, the same rights with respect to translations thereof.

 

Article 11bis. Broadcasting and Related Rights:

1. Broadcasting and other wireless communications, public communication of broadcast by wire or rebroadcast, public communication of broadcast by loudspeaker or analogous instruments;

2. Compulsory licenses; 3. Recording; ephemeral recordings

(1) Authors of literary and artistic works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing:

(i) the broadcasting of their works or the communication thereof to the public by any other means of wireless diffusion of signs, sounds or images;

(ii) any communication to the public by wire or by rebroadcasting of the broadcast of the work, when this communication is made by an organization other than the original one;

(iii) the public communication by loudspeaker or any other analogous instrument transmitting, by signs, sounds or images, the broadcast of the work.

(2) It shall be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to determine the conditions under which the rights mentioned in the preceding paragraph may be exercised, but these conditions shall apply only in the countries where they have been prescribed. They shall not in any circumstances be prejudicial to the moral rights of the author, nor to his right to obtain equitable remuneration which, in the absence of agreement, shall be fixed by competent authority.

(3) In the absence of any contrary stipulation, permission granted in accordance with paragraph (1) of this Article shall not imply permission to record, by means of instruments recording sounds or images, the work broadcast. It shall, however, be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to determine the regulations for ephemeral recordings made by a broadcasting organization by means of its own facilities and used for its own broadcasts. The preservation of these recordings in official archives may, on the ground of their exceptional documentary character, be authorized by such legislation.

 

Article 11ter. Certain Rights in Literary Works: 1. Right of public recitation and of communication to the public of a recitation; 2. In respect of translations

(1) Authors of literary works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing:

(i) the public recitation of their works, including such public recitation by any means or process;

(ii) any communication to the public of the recitation of their works.

(2) Authors of literary works shall enjoy, during the full term of their rights in the original works, the same rights with respect to translations thereof.

 

Article 12. Right of Adaptation, Arrangement and Other Alteration

Authors of literary or artistic works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing adaptations, arrangements and other alterations of their works.

 

Article 13. Possible Limitation of the Right of Recording of Musical Works and Any Words Pertaining Thereto: 1. Compulsory licenses; 2. Transitory measures;3. Seizure on importation of copies made without the author’s permission

(1) Each country of the Union may impose for itself reservations and conditions on the exclusive right granted to the author of a musical work and to the author of any words, the recording of which together with the musical work has already been authorized by the latter, to authorize the sound recording of that musical work, together with such words, if any; but all such reservations and conditions shall apply only in the countries which have imposed them and shall not, in any circumstances, be prejudicial to the rights of these authors to obtain equitable remuneration which, in the absence of agreement, shall be fixed by competent authority.

(2) Recordings of musical works made in a country of the Union in accordance with Article 13(3) of the Conventions signed at Rome on June 2, 1928, and at Brussels on June 26, 1948, may be reproduced in that country without the permission of the author of the musical work until a date two years after that country becomes bound by this Act.

(3) Recordings made in accordance with paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Article and imported without permission from the parties concerned into a country where they are treated as infringing recordings shall be liable to seizure.

 

Article 14. Cinematographic and Related Rights: 1. Cinematographic adaptation and reproduction; distribution; public performance and public communication by wire of works thus adapted or reproduced; 2. Adaptation of cinematographic productions; 3. No compulsory licenses

(1) Authors of literary or artistic works shall have the exclusive right of authorizing:

(i) the cinematographic adaptation and reproduction of these works, and the distribution of the works thus adapted or reproduced;

(ii) the public performance and communication to the public by wire of the works thus adapted or reproduced.

(2) The adaptation into any other artistic form of a cinematographic production derived from literary or artistic works shall, without prejudice to the authorization of the author of the cinematographic production, remain subject to the authorization of the authors of the original works.

(3) The provisions of Article 13(1) shall not apply.

 

Article 14bis. Special Provisions Concerning Cinematographic Works: 1. Assimilation to “original” works;  2. Ownership; limitation of certain rights of certain contributors; 3. Certain other contributors

(1) Without prejudice to the copyright in any work which may have been adapted or reproduced, a cinematographic work shall be protected as an original work. The owner of copyright in a cinematographic work shall enjoy the same rights as the author of an original work, including the rights referred to in the preceding Article.

(2)

(a) Ownership of copyright in a cinematographic work shall be a matter for legislation in the country where protection is claimed.

(b) However, in the countries of the Union which, by legislation, include among the owners of copyright in a cinematographic work authors who have brought contributions to the making of the work, such authors, if they have undertaken to bring such contributions, may not, in the absence of any contrary or special stipulation, object to the reproduction, distribution, public performance, communication to the public by wire, broadcasting or any other communication to the public, or to the subtitling or dubbing of texts, of the work.

(c) The question whether or not the form of the undertaking referred to above should, for the application of the preceding subparagraph (b), be in a written agreement or a written act of the same effect shall be a matter for the legislation of the country where the maker of the cinematographic work has his headquarters or habitual residence. However, it shall be a matter for the legislation of the country of the Union where protection is claimed to provide that the said undertaking shall be in a written agreement or a written act of the same effect. The countries whose legislation so provides shall notify the Director General by means of a written declaration, which will be immediately communicated by him to all the other countries of the Union.

(d) By “contrary or special stipulation” is meant any restrictive condition which is relevant to the aforesaid undertaking.

(3) Unless the national legislation provides to the contrary, the provisions of paragraph (2)(b) above shall not be applicable to authors of scenarios, dialogues and musical works created for the making of the cinematographic work, or to the principal director thereof. However, those countries of the Union whose legislation does not contain rules providing for the application of the said paragraph (2)(b) to such director shall notify the Director General by means of a written declaration, which will be immediately communicated by him to all the other countries of the Union.

 

Article 14ter. “Droit de suite” in Works of Art and Manuscripts: 1. Right to an interest in resales; 2. Applicable law; 3. Procedure

(1) The author, or after his death the persons or institutions authorized by national legislation, shall, with respect to original works of art and original manuscripts of writers and composers, enjoy the inalienable right to an interest in any sale of the work subsequent to the first transfer by the author of the work.

(2) The protection provided by the preceding paragraph may be claimed in a country of the Union only if legislation in the country to which the author belongs so permits, and to the extent permitted by the country where this protection is claimed.

(3) The procedure for collection and the amounts shall be matters for determination by national legislation.

 

Article 15. Right to Enforce Protected Rights: 1. Where author’s name is indicated or where pseudonym leaves no doubt as to author’s identity; 2. In the case of cinematographic works; 3. In the case of anonymous and pseudonymous works; 4. In the case of certain unpublished works of unknown authorship

(1) In order that the author of a literary or artistic work protected by this Convention shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be regarded as such, and consequently be entitled to institute infringement proceedings in the countries of the Union, it shall be sufficient for his name to appear on the work in the usual manner. This paragraph shall be applicable even if this name is a pseudonym, where the pseudonym adopted by the author leaves no doubt as to his identity.

(2) The person or body corporate whose name appears on a cinematographic work in the usual manner shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be presumed to be the maker of the said work.

(3) In the case of anonymous and pseudonymous works, other than those referred to in paragraph (1) above, the publisher whose name appears on the work shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be deemed to represent the author, and in this capacity he shall be entitled to protect and enforce the author’s rights. The provisions of this paragraph shall cease to apply when the author reveals his identity and establishes his claim to authorship of the work.

(4)

(a) In the case of unpublished works where the identity of the author is unknown, but where there is every ground to presume that he is a national of a country of the Union, it shall be a matter for legislation in that country to designate the competent authority which shall represent the author and shall be entitled to protect and enforce his rights in the countries of the Union.

(b) Countries of the Union which make such designation under the terms of this provision shall notify the Director General by means of a written declaration giving full information concerning the authority thus designated. The Director General shall at once communicate this declaration to all other countries of the Union.

 

Article 16. Infringing Copies: 1. Seizure;  2. Seizure on importation; 3. Applicable law

(1) Infringing copies of a work shall be liable to seizure in any country of the Union where the work enjoys legal protection.

(2) The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall also apply to reproductions coming from a country where the work is not protected, or has ceased to be protected.

(3) The seizure shall take place in accordance with the legislation of each country.

 

Article 17. Possibility of Control of Circulation, Presentation and Exhibition of Works

The provisions of this Convention cannot in any way affect the right of the Government of each country of the Union to permit, to control, or to prohibit, by legislation or regulation, the circulation, presentation, or exhibition of any work or production in regard to which the competent authority may find it necessary to exercise that right.

 

Article 18. Works Existing on Convention’s Entry Into Force: 1. Protectable where protection not yet expired in country of origin; 2. Non-protectable where protection already expired in country where it is claimed; 3. Application of these principles; 4. Special cases

(1) This Convention shall apply to all works which, at the moment of its coming into force, have not yet fallen into the public domain in the country of origin through the expiry of the term of protection.

(2) If, however, through the expiry of the term of protection which was previously granted, a work has fallen into the public domain of the country where protection is claimed, that work shall not be protected anew.

(3) The application of this principle shall be subject to any provisions contained in special conventions to that effect existing or to be concluded between countries of the Union. In the absence of such provisions, the respective countries shall determine, each in so far as it is concerned, the conditions of application of this principle.

(4) The preceding provisions shall also apply in the case of new accessions to the Union and to cases in which protection is extended by the application of Article 7 or by the abandonment of reservations.

 

Article 19. Protection Greater than Resulting from Convention

The provisions of this Convention shall not preclude the making of a claim to the benefit of any greater protection which may be granted by legislation in a country of the Union.

 

Article 20. Special Agreements Among Countries of the Union

The Governments of the countries of the Union reserve the right to enter into special agreements among themselves, in so far as such agreements grant to authors more extensive rights than those granted by the Convention, or contain other provisions not contrary to this Convention. The provisions of existing agreements which satisfy these conditions shall remain applicable.

 

Article 21. Special Provisions Regarding Developing Countries: 1. Reference to Appendix; 2. Appendix part of Act

(1) Special provisions regarding developing countries are included in the Appendix.

(2) Subject to the provisions of Article 28(1)(b), the Appendix forms an integral part of this Act.

 

Article 22. Assembly: 1. Constitution and composition;  2. Tasks; 3. Quorum, voting, observers; 4. Convocation; 5. Rules of procedure

(1)

(a) The Union shall have an Assembly consisting of those countries of the Union which are bound by Articles 22 to 26.

(b) The Government of each country shall be represented by one delegate, who may be assisted by alternate delegates, advisors, and experts.

(c) The expenses of each delegation shall be borne by the Government which has appointed it.

(2)

(a) The Assembly shall:

(i) deal with all matters concerning the maintenance and development of the Union and the implementation of this Convention;

(ii) give directions concerning the preparation for conferences of revision to the International Bureau of Intellectual Property (hereinafter designated as “the International Bureau”) referred to in the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (hereinafter designated as “the Organization”), due account being taken of any comments made by those countries of the Union which are not bound by Articles 22 to 26;

(iii) review and approve the reports and activities of the Director General of the Organization concerning the Union, and give him all necessary instructions concerning matters within the competence of the Union;

(iv) elect the members of the Executive Committee of the Assembly;

(v) review and approve the reports and activities of its Executive Committee, and give instructions to such Committee;

(vi) determine the program and adopt the biennial budget of the Union, and approve its final accounts;

(vii) adopt the financial regulations of the Union;

(viii) establish such committees of experts and working groups as may be necessary for the work of the Union;

(ix) determine which countries not members of the Union and which intergovernmental and international non-governmental organizations shall be admitted to its meetings as observers;

(x) adopt amendments to Articles 22 to 26;

(xi) take any other appropriate action designed to further the objectives of the Union;

(xii) exercise such other functions as are appropriate under this Convention;

(xiii) subject to its acceptance, exercise such rights as are given to it in the Convention establishing the Organization.

(b) With respect to matters which are of interest also to other Unions administered by the Organization, the Assembly shall make its decisions after having heard the advice of the Coordination Committee of the Organization.

(3)

(a) Each country member of the Assembly shall have one vote.

(b) One-half of the countries members of the Assembly shall constitute a quorum.

(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subparagraph (b), if, in any session, the number of countries represented is less than one-half but equal to or more than one-third of the countries members of the Assembly, the Assembly may make decisions but, with the exception of decisions concerning its own procedure, all such decisions shall take effect only if the following conditions are fulfilled. The International Bureau shall communicate the said decisions to the countries members of the Assembly which were not represented and shall invite them to express in writing their vote or abstention within a period of three months from the date of the communication. If, at the expiration of this period, the number of countries having thus expressed their vote or abstention attains the number of countries which was lacking for attaining the quorum in the session itself, such decisions shall take effect provided that at the same time the required majority still obtains.

(d) Subject to the provisions of Article 26(2), the decisions of the Assembly shall require two-thirds of the votes cast.

(e) Abstentions shall not be considered as votes.

(f) A delegate may represent, and vote in the name of, one country only.

(g) Countries of the Union not members of the Assembly shall be admitted to its meetings as observers.

(4)

(a) The Assembly shall meet once in every second calendar year in ordinary session upon convocation by the Director General and, in the absence of exceptional circumstances, during the same period and at the same place as the General Assembly of the Organization.

(b) The Assembly shall meet in extraordinary session upon convocation by the Director General, at the request of the Executive Committee or at the request of one-fourth of the countries members of the Assembly.

(5) The Assembly shall adopt its own rules of procedure.

Article 23. Executive Committee: 1. Constitution; 2. Composition; 3. Number of members; 4. Geographical distribution; special agreements; 5. Term, limits of re-eligibility, rules of election; 6. Tasks; 7. Convocation; 8. Quorum, voting; 9. Observers; 10. Rules of procedure

(1) The Assembly shall have an Executive Committee.

(2)

(a) The Executive Committee shall consist of countries elected by the Assembly from among countries members of the Assembly. Furthermore, the country on whose territory the Organization has its headquarters shall, subject to the provisions of Article 25(7)(b), have an ex officio seat on the Committee.

(b) The Government of each country member of the Executive Committee shall be represented by one delegate, who may be assisted by alternate delegates, advisors, and experts.

(c) The expenses of each delegation shall be borne by the Government which has appointed it.

(3) The number of countries members of the Executive Committee shall correspond to one-fourth of the number of countries members of the Assembly. In establishing the number of seats to be filled, remainders after division by four shall be disregarded.

(4) In electing the members of the Executive Committee, the Assembly shall have due regard to an equitable geographical distribution and to the need for countries party to the Special Agreements which might be established in relation with the Union to be among the countries constituting the Executive Committee.

(5)

(a) Each member of the Executive Committee shall serve from the close of the session of the Assembly which elected it to the close of the next ordinary session of the Assembly.

(b) Members of the Executive Committee may be re-elected, but not more than two-thirds of them.

(c) The Assembly shall establish the details of the rules governing the election and possible re-election of the members of the Executive Committee.

(6)

(a) The Executive Committee shall:

(i) prepare the draft agenda of the Assembly;

(ii) submit proposals to the Assembly respecting the draft program and biennial budget of the Union prepared by the Director General;

(iii) [deleted]

(iv) submit, with appropriate comments, to the Assembly the periodical reports of the Director General and the yearly audit reports on the accounts;

(v) in accordance with the decisions of the Assembly and having regard to circumstances arising between two ordinary sessions of the Assembly, take all necessary measures to ensure the execution of the program of the Union by the Director General;

(vi) perform such other functions as are allocated to it under this Convention.

(b) With respect to matters which are of interest also to other Unions administered by the Organization, the Executive Committee shall make its decisions after having heard the advice of the Coordination Committee of the Organization.

(7)

(a) The Executive Committee shall meet once a year in ordinary session upon convocation by the Director General, preferably during the same period and at the same place as the Coordination Committee of the Organization.

(b) The Executive Committee shall meet in extraordinary session upon convocation by the Director General, either on his own initiative, or at the request of its Chairman or one-fourth of its members.

(8)

(a) Each country member of the Executive Committee shall have one vote.

(b) One-half of the members of the Executive Committee shall constitute a quorum.

(c) Decisions shall be made by a simple majority of the votes cast.

(d) Abstentions shall not be considered as votes.

(e) A delegate may represent, and vote in the name of, one country only.

(9) Countries of the Union not members of the Executive Committee shall be admitted to its meetings as observers.

(10) The Executive Committee shall adopt its own rules of procedure.

 

Article 24. International Bureau: 1. Tasks in general, Director General; 2. General information; 3. Periodical; 4. Information to countries;  5. Studies and services; 6. Participation in meetings; 7. Conferences of revision; 8. Other tasks

(1)

(a) The administrative tasks with respect to the Union shall be performed by the International Bureau, which is a continuation of the Bureau of the Union united with the Bureau of the Union established by the International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

(b) In particular, the International Bureau shall provide the secretariat of the various organs of the Union.

(c) The Director General of the Organization shall be the chief executive of the Union and shall represent the Union.

(2) The International Bureau shall assemble and publish information concerning the protection of copyright. Each country of the Union shall promptly communicate to the International Bureau all new laws and official texts concerning the protection of copyright.

(3) The International Bureau shall publish a monthly periodical.

(4) The International Bureau shall, on request, furnish information to any country of the Union on matters concerning the protection of copyright.

(5) The International Bureau shall conduct studies, and shall provide services, designed to facilitate the protection of copyright.

(6) The Director General and any staff member designated by him shall participate, without the right to vote, in all meetings of the Assembly, the Executive Committee and any other committee of experts or working group. The Director General, or a staff member designated by him, shall be ex officio secretary of these bodies.

(7)

(a) The International Bureau shall, in accordance with the directions of the Assembly and in cooperation with the Executive Committee, make the preparations for the conferences of revision of the provisions of the Convention other than Articles 22 to 26.

(b) The International Bureau may consult with intergovernmental and international non-governmental organizations concerning preparations for conferences of revision.

(c) The Director General and persons designated by him shall take part, without the right to vote, in the discussions at these conferences.

(8) The International Bureau shall carry out any other tasks assigned to it.

 

Article 25. Finances: 1. Budget; 2. Coordination with other Unions; 3. Resources; 4. Contributions; possible extension of previous budget; 5. Fees and charges; 6. Working capital fund; 7. Advances by host Government; 8. Auditing of accounts

(1)

(a) The Union shall have a budget.

(b) The budget of the Union shall include the income and expenses proper to the Union, its contribution to the budget of expenses common to the Unions, and, where applicable, the sum made available to the budget of the Conference of the Organization.

(c) Expenses not attributable exclusively to the Union but also to one or more other Unions administered by the Organization shall be considered as expenses common to the Unions. The share of the Union in such common expenses shall be in proportion to the interest the Union has in them.

(2) The budget of the Union shall be established with due regard to the requirements of coordination with the budgets of the other Unions administered by the Organization.

(3) The budget of the Union shall be financed from the following sources:

(i) contributions of the countries of the Union;

(ii) fees and charges due for services performed by the International Bureau in relation to the Union;

(iii) sale of, or royalties on, the publications of the International Bureau concerning the Union;

(iv) gifts, bequests, and subventions;

(v) rents, interests, and other miscellaneous income.

(4)

(a) For the purpose of establishing its contribution towards the budget, each country of the Union shall belong to a class, and shall pay its annual contributions on the basis of a number of units fixed as follows4:

Class I …………………. 25

Class II ………………… 20

Class III ……………….. 15

Class IV ……………….. 10

Class V ………………….. 5

Class VI …………………. 3

Class VII ………………… 1

 

(b) Unless it has already done so, each country shall indicate, concurrently with depositing its instrument of ratification or accession, the class to which it wishes to belong. Any country may change class. If it chooses a lower class, the country must announce it to the Assembly at one of its ordinary sessions. Any such change shall take effect at the beginning of the calendar year following the session.

(c) The annual contribution of each country shall be an amount in the same proportion to the total sum to be contributed to the annual budget of the Union by all countries as the number of its units is to the total of the units of all contributing countries.

(d) Contributions shall become due on the first of January of each year.

(e) A country which is in arrears in the payment of its contributions shall have no vote in any of the organs of the Union of which it is a member if the amount of its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding two full years. However, any organ of the Union may allow such a country to continue to exercise its vote in that organ if, and as long as, it is satisfied that the delay in payment is due to exceptional and unavoidable circumstances.

(f) If the budget is not adopted before the beginning of a new financial period, it shall be at the same level as the budget of the previous year, in accordance with the financial regulations.

(5) The amount of the fees and charges due for services rendered by the International Bureau in relation to the Union shall be established, and shall be reported to the Assembly and the Executive Committee, by the Director General.

(6)

(a) The Union shall have a working capital fund which shall be constituted by a single payment made by each country of the Union. If the fund becomes insufficient, an increase shall be decided by the Assembly.

(b) The amount of the initial payment of each country to the said fund or of its participation in the increase thereof shall be a proportion of the contribution of that country for the year in which the fund is established or the increase decided.

(c) The proportion and the terms of payment shall be fixed by the Assembly on the proposal of the Director General and after it has heard the advice of the Coordination Committee of the Organization.

(7)

(a) In the headquarters agreement concluded with the country on the territory of which the Organization has its headquarters, it shall be provided that, whenever the working capital fund is insufficient, such country shall grant advances. The amount of these advances and the conditions on which they are granted shall be the subject of separate agreements, in each case, between such country and the Organization. As long as it remains under the obligation to grant advances, such country shall have an ex officio seat on the Executive Committee.

(b) The country referred to in subparagraph (a) and the Organization shall each have the right to denounce the obligation to grant advances, by written notification. Denunciation shall take effect three years after the end of the year in which it has been notified.

(8) The auditing of the accounts shall be effected by one or more of the countries of the Union or by external auditors, as provided in the financial regulations. They shall be designated, with their agreement, by the Assembly.

 

Article 26. Amendments: 1. Provisions susceptible of amendment by the Assembly; proposals; 2. Adoption; 3. Entry into force

(1) Proposals for the amendment of Articles 22, 23, 24, 25, and the present Article, may be initiated by any country member of the Assembly, by the Executive Committee, or by the Director General. Such proposals shall be communicated by the Director General to the member countries of the Assembly at least six months in advance of their consideration by the Assembly.

(2) Amendments to the Articles referred to in paragraph (1) shall be adopted by the Assembly. Adoption shall require three-fourths of the votes cast, provided that any amendment of Article 22, and of the present paragraph, shall require four-fifths of the votes cast.

(3) Any amendment to the Articles referred to in paragraph (1) shall enter into force one month after written notifications of acceptance, effected in accordance with their respective constitutional processes, have been received by the Director General from three-fourths of the countries members of the Assembly at the time it adopted the amendment. Any amendment to the said Articles thus accepted shall bind all the countries which are members of the Assembly at the time the amendment enters into force, or which become members thereof at a subsequent date, provided that any amendment increasing the financial obligations of countries of the Union shall bind only those countries which have notified their acceptance of such amendment.

 

Article 27. Revision: 1. Objective; 2. Conferences; 3. Adoption

(1) This Convention shall be submitted to revision with a view to the introduction of amendments designed to improve the system of the Union.

(2) For this purpose, conferences shall be held successively in one of the countries of the Union among the delegates of the said countries.

(3) Subject to the provisions of Article 26 which apply to the amendment of Articles 22 to 26, any revision of this Act, including the Appendix, shall require the unanimity of the votes cast.

 

 

Article 28. Acceptance and Entry Into Force of Act for Countries of the Union:

1. Ratification, accession; possibility of excluding certain provisions; withdrawal of exclusion;

2. Entry into force of Articles 1 to 21 and Appendix; 3. Entry into force of Articles 22 to 38

 

(1)

(a) Any country of the Union which has signed this Act may ratify it, and, if it has not signed it, may accede to it. Instruments of ratification or accession shall be deposited with the Director General.

(b) Any country of the Union may declare in its instrument of ratification or accession that its ratification or accession shall not apply to Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix, provided that, if such country has previously made a declaration under Article VI(1) of the Appendix, then it may declare in the said instrument only that its ratification or accession shall not apply to Articles 1 to 20.

(c) Any country of the Union which, in accordance with subparagraph (b), has excluded provisions therein referred to from the effects of its ratification or accession may at any later time declare that it extends the effects of its ratification or accession to those provisions. Such declaration shall be deposited with the Director General.

 

(2)

(a) Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix shall enter into force three months after both of the following two conditions are fulfilled:

(i) at least five countries of the Union have ratified or acceded to this Act without making a declaration under paragraph (1)(b),

(ii) France, Spain, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America, have become bound by the Universal Copyright Convention as revised at Paris on July 24, 1971.

(b) The entry into force referred to in subparagraph (a) shall apply to those countries of the Union which, at least three months before the said entry into force, have deposited instruments of ratification or accession not containing a declaration under paragraph (1)(b).

(c) With respect to any country of the Union not covered by subparagraph (b) and which ratifies or accedes to this Act without making a declaration under paragraph (1)(b), Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix shall enter into force three months after the date on which the Director General has notified the deposit of the relevant instrument of ratification or accession, unless a subsequent date has been indicated in the instrument deposited. In the latter case, Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix shall enter into force with respect to that country on the date thus indicated.

(d) The provisions of subparagraphs (a) to (c) do not affect the application of Article VI of the Appendix.

(3) With respect to any country of the Union which ratifies or accedes to this Act with or without a declaration made under paragraph (1)(b), Articles 22 to 38 shall enter into force three months after the date on which the Director General has notified the deposit of the relevant instrument of ratification or accession, unless a subsequent date has been indicated in the instrument deposited. In the latter case, Articles 22 to 38 shall enter into force with respect to that country on the date thus indicated.

 

Article 29. Acceptance and Entry Into Force for Countries Outside the Union: 1. Accession; 2. Entry into force

(1) Any country outside the Union may accede to this Act and thereby become party to this Convention and a member of the Union. Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Director General.

(2)

(a) Subject to subparagraph (b), this Convention shall enter into force with respect to any country outside the Union three months after the date on which the Director General has notified the deposit of its instrument of accession, unless a subsequent date has been indicated in the instrument deposited. In the latter case, this Convention shall enter into force with respect to that country on the date thus indicated.

(b) If the entry into force according to subparagraph (a) precedes the entry into force of Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix according to Article 28(2)(a), the said country shall, in the meantime, be bound, instead of by Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix, by Articles 1 to 20 of the Brussels Act of this Convention.

 

Article 29bis. Effect of Acceptance of Act for the Purposes of Article 14(2) of the WIPO Convention

Ratification of or accession to this Act by any country not bound by Articles 22 to of the Stockholm Act of this Convention shall, for the sole purposes of Article 14(2) of the Convention establishing the Organization, amount to ratification of or accession to the said Stockholm Act with the limitation set forth in Article 28(1)(b)(i) thereof.

 

Article 30. Reservations: 1. Limits of possibility of making reservations; 2. Earlier reservations; reservation as to the right of translation; withdrawal of reservation

(1) Subject to the exceptions permitted by paragraph (2) of this Article, by Article 28(1)(b), by Article 33(2), and by the Appendix, ratification or accession shall automatically entail acceptance of all the provisions and admission to all the advantages of this Convention.

(2)

(a) Any country of the Union ratifying or acceding to this Act may, subject to Article V(2) of the Appendix, retain the benefit of the reservations it has previously formulated on condition that it makes a declaration to that effect at the time of the deposit of its instrument of ratification or accession.

(b) Any country outside the Union may declare, in acceding to this Convention and subject to Article V(2) of the Appendix, that it intends to substitute, temporarily at least, for Article 8 of this Act concerning the right of translation, the provisions of Article 5 of the Union Convention of 1886, as completed at Paris in 1896, on the clear understanding that the said provisions are applicable only to translations into a language in general use in the said country. Subject to Article I(6)(b) of the Appendix, any country has the right to apply, in relation to the right of translation of works whose country of origin is a country availing itself of such a reservation, a protection which is equivalent to the protection granted by the latter country.

(c) Any country may withdraw such reservations at any time by notification addressed to the Director General.

 

Article 31. Applicability to Certain Territories: 1. Declaration; 2. Withdrawal of declaration; 3. Effective date; 4. Acceptance of factual situations not implied

(1) Any country may declare in its instrument of ratification or accession, or may inform the Director General by written notification at any time thereafter, that this Convention shall be applicable to all or part of those territories, designated in the declaration or notification, for the external relations of which it is responsible.

(2) Any country which has made such a declaration or given such a notification may, at any time, notify the Director General that this Convention shall cease to be applicable to all or part of such territories.

(3)

(a) Any declaration made under paragraph (1) shall take effect on the same date as the ratification or accession in which it was included, and any notification given under that paragraph shall take effect three months after its notification by the Director General.

(b) Any notification given under paragraph (2) shall take effect twelve months after its receipt by the Director General.

(4) This Article shall in no way be understood as implying the recognition or tacit acceptance by a country of the Union of the factual situation concerning a territory to which this Convention is made applicable by another country of the Union by virtue of a declaration under paragraph (1).

 

Article 32. Applicability of this Act and of Earlier Acts: 1. As between countries already members of the Union; 2. As between a country becoming a member of the Union and other countries members of the Union; 3. Applicability of the Appendix in Certain Relations

(1) This Act shall, as regards relations between the countries of the Union, and to the extent that it applies, replace the Berne Convention of September 9, 1886, and the subsequent Acts of revision. The Acts previously in force shall continue to be applicable, in their entirety or to the extent that this Act does not replace them by virtue of the preceding sentence, in relations with countries of the Union which do not ratify or accede to this Act.

(2) Countries outside the Union which become party to this Act shall, subject to paragraph (3), apply it with respect to any country of the Union not bound by this Act or which, although bound by this Act, has made a declaration pursuant to Article 28(1)(b). Such countries recognize that the said country of the Union, in its relations with them:

(i) may apply the provisions of the most recent Act by which it is bound, and

(ii) subject to Article I(6) of the Appendix, has the right to adapt the protection to the level provided for by this Act.

(3) Any country which has availed itself of any of the faculties provided for in the Appendix may apply the provisions of the Appendix relating to the faculty or faculties of which it has availed itself in its relations with any other country of the Union which is not bound by this Act, provided that the latter country has accepted the application of the said provisions.

 

Article 33. Disputes: 1. Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice; 2. Reservation as to such jurisdiction; 3. Withdrawal of reservation

(1) Any dispute between two or more countries of the Union concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention, not settled by negotiation, may, by any one of the countries concerned, be brought before the International Court of Justice by application in conformity with the Statute of the Court, unless the countries concerned agree on some other method of settlement. The country bringing the dispute before the Court shall inform the International Bureau; the International Bureau shall bring the matter to the attention of the other countries of the Union.

(2) Each country may, at the time it signs this Act or deposits its instrument of ratification or accession, declare that it does not consider itself bound by the provisions of paragraph (1). With regard to any dispute between such country and any other country of the Union, the provisions of paragraph (1) shall not apply.

(3) Any country having made a declaration in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (2) may, at any time, withdraw its declaration by notification addressed to the Director General.

 

Article 34. Closing of Certain Earlier Provisions: 1. Of earlier Acts; 2. Of the Protocol to the Stockholm Act

(1) Subject to Article 29bis, no country may ratify or accede to earlier Acts of this Convention once Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix have entered into force.

(2) Once Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix have entered into force, no country may make a declaration under Article 5 of the Protocol Regarding Developing Countries attached to the Stockholm Act.

 

Article 35. Duration of the Convention; Denunciation: 1. Unlimited duration; 2. Possibility of denunciation; 3. Effective date of denunciation; 4. Moratorium on denunciation

(1) This Convention shall remain in force without limitation as to time.

(2) Any country may denounce this Act by notification addressed to the Director General. Such denunciation shall constitute also denunciation of all earlier Acts and shall affect only the country making it, the Convention remaining in full force and effect as regards the other countries of the Union.

(3) Denunciation shall take effect one year after the day on which the Director General has received the notification.

(4) The right of denunciation provided by this Article shall not be exercised by any country before the expiration of five years from the date upon which it becomes a member of the Union.

 

Article 36. Application of the Convention: 1. Obligation to adopt the necessary measures; 2. Time from which obligation exists

(1) Any country party to this Convention undertakes to adopt, in accordance with its constitution, the measures necessary to ensure the application of this Convention.

(2) It is understood that, at the time a country becomes bound by this Convention, it will be in a position under its domestic law to give effect to the provisions of this Convention.

 

Article 37. Final Clauses: 1. Languages of the Act; 2. Signature; 3. Certified copies; 4. Registration; 5. Notifications

(1)

(a) This Act shall be signed in a single copy in the French and English languages and, subject to paragraph (2), shall be deposited with the Director General.

(b) Official texts shall be established by the Director General, after consultation with the interested Governments, in the Arabic, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages, and such other languages as the Assembly may designate.

(c) In case of differences of opinion on the interpretation of the various texts, the French text shall prevail.

(2) This Act shall remain open for signature until January 31, 1972. Until that date, the copy referred to in paragraph (1)(a) shall be deposited with the Government of the French Republic.

(3) The Director General shall certify and transmit two copies of the signed text of this Act to the Governments of all countries of the Union and, on request, to the Government of any other country.

(4) The Director General shall register this Act with the Secretariat of the United Nations.

(5) The Director General shall notify the Governments of all countries of the Union of signatures, deposits of instruments of ratification or accession and any declarations included in such instruments or made pursuant to Articles 28(1)(c), 30(2)(a) and (b), and 33(2), entry into force of any provisions of this Act, notifications of denunciation, and notifications pursuant to Articles 30(2)(c), 31(1) and (2), 33(3), and 38(1), as well as the Appendix.

 

Article 38. Transitory Provisions: 1. Exercise of the “five-year privilege”; 2. Bureau of the Union, Director of the Bureau; 3. Succession of Bureau of the Union

(1) Countries of the Union which have not ratified or acceded to this Act and which are not bound by Articles 22 to 26 of the Stockholm Act of this Convention may, until April 26, 1975, exercise, if they so desire, the rights provided under the said Articles as if they were bound by them. Any country desiring to exercise such rights shall give written notification to this effect to the Director General; this notification shall be effective on the date of its receipt. Such countries shall be deemed to be members of the Assembly until the said date.

(2) As long as all the countries of the Union have not become Members of the Organization, the International Bureau of the Organization shall also function as the Bureau of the Union, and the Director General as the Director of the said Bureau.

(3) Once all the countries of the Union have become Members of the Organization, the rights, obligations, and property, of the Bureau of the Union shall devolve on the International Bureau of the Organization.

 

APPENDIX SPECIAL PROVISIONS REGARDING DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Article I. Faculties Open to Developing Countries: 1. Availability of certain faculties; declaration; 2. Duration of effect of declaration; 3. Cessation of developing country status; 4. Existing stocks of copies; 5. Declarations concerning certain territories; 6. Limits of reciprocity

(1) Any country regarded as a developing country in conformity with the established practice of the General Assembly of the United Nations which ratifies or accedes to this Act, of which this Appendix forms an integral part, and which, having regard to its economic situation and its social or cultural needs, does not consider itself immediately in a position to make provision for the protection of all the rights as provided for in this Act, may, by a notification deposited with the Director General at the time of depositing its instrument of ratification or accession or, subject to Article V(1)(c), at any time thereafter, declare that it will avail itself of the faculty provided for in Article II, or of the faculty provided for in Article III, or of both of those faculties. It may, instead of availing itself of the faculty provided for in Article II, make a declaration according to Article V(1)(a).

(2)

(a) Any declaration under paragraph (1) notified before the expiration of the period of ten years from the entry into force of Articles 1 to 21 and this Appendix according to Article 28(2) shall be effective until the expiration of the said period. Any such declaration may be renewed in whole or in part for periods of ten years each by a notification deposited with the Director General not more than fifteen months and not less than three months before the expiration of the ten-year period then running.

(b) Any declaration under paragraph (1) notified after the expiration of the period of ten years from the entry into force of Articles 1 to 21 and this Appendix according to Article 28(2) shall be effective until the expiration of the ten-year period then running. Any such declaration may be renewed as provided for in the second sentence of subparagraph (a).

(3) Any country of the Union which has ceased to be regarded as a developing country as referred to in paragraph (1) shall no longer be entitled to renew its declaration as provided in paragraph (2), and, whether or not it formally withdraws its declaration, such country shall be precluded from availing itself of the faculties referred to in paragraph (1) from the expiration of the ten-year period then running or from the expiration of a period of three years after it has ceased to be regarded as a developing country, whichever period expires later.

(4) Where, at the time when the declaration made under paragraph (1) or (2) ceases to be effective, there are copies in stock which were made under a license granted by virtue of this Appendix, such copies may continue to be distributed until their stock is exhausted.

(5) Any country which is bound by the provisions of this Act and which has deposited a declaration or a notification in accordance with Article 31(1) with respect to the application of this Act to a particular territory, the situation of which can be regarded as analogous to that of the countries referred to in paragraph (1), may, in respect of such territory, make the declaration referred to in paragraph (1) and the notification of renewal referred to in paragraph (2). As long as such declaration or notification remains in effect, the provisions of this Appendix shall be applicable to the territory in respect of which it was made.

(6)

(a) The fact that a country avails itself of any of the faculties referred to in paragraph (1) does not permit another country to give less protection to works of which the country of origin is the former country than it is obliged to grant under Articles 1 to 20.

(b) The right to apply reciprocal treatment provided for in Article 30(2)(b), second sentence, shall not, until the date on which the period applicable under Article I(3) expires, be exercised in respect of works the country of origin of which is a country which has made a declaration according to Article V(1)(a).

 

Article II. Limitations on the Right of Translation: 1. Licenses grantable by competent authority; 2. to 4. Conditions allowing the grant of such licenses; 5. Purposes for which licenses may be granted; 6. Termination of licenses; 7. Works composed mainly of illustrations; 8. Works withdrawn from circulation; 9. Licenses for broadcasting organizations

(1) Any country which has declared that it will avail itself of the faculty provided for in this Article shall be entitled, so far as works published in printed or analogous forms of reproduction are concerned, to substitute for the exclusive right of translation provided for in Article 8 a system of non-exclusive and non-transferable licenses, granted by the competent authority under the following conditions and subject to Article IV.

(2)

(a) Subject to paragraph (3), if, after the expiration of a period of three years, or of any longer period determined by the national legislation of the said country, commencing on the date of the first publication of the work, a translation of such work has not been published in a language in general use in that country by the owner of the right of translation, or with his authorization, any national of such country may obtain a license to make a translation of the work in the said language and publish the translation in printed or analogous forms of reproduction.

(b) A license under the conditions provided for in this Article may also be granted if all the editions of the translation published in the language concerned are out of print.

(3)

(a) In the case of translations into a language which is not in general use in one or more developed countries which are members of the Union, a period of one year shall be substituted for the period of three years referred to in paragraph (2)(a).

(b) Any country referred to in paragraph (1) may, with the unanimous agreement of the developed countries which are members of the Union and in which the same language is in general use, substitute, in the case of translations into that language, for the period of three years referred to in paragraph (2)(a) a shorter period as determined by such agreement but not less than one year. However, the provisions of the foregoing sentence shall not apply where the language in question is English, French or Spanish. The Director General shall be notified of any such agreement by the Governments which have concluded it.

(4)

(a) No license obtainable after three years shall be granted under this Article until a further period of six months has elapsed, and no license obtainable after one year shall be granted under this Article until a further period of nine months has elapsed

(i) from the date on which the applicant complies with the requirements mentioned in Article IV(1), or

(ii) where the identity or the address of the owner of the right of translation is unknown, from the date on which the applicant sends, as provided for in Article IV(2), copies of his application submitted to the authority competent to grant the license.

(b) If, during the said period of six or nine months, a translation in the language in respect of which the application was made is published by the owner of the right of translation or with his authorization, no license under this Article shall be granted.

(5) Any license under this Article shall be granted only for the purpose of teaching, scholarship or research.

(6) If a translation of a work is published by the owner of the right of translation or with his authorization at a price reasonably related to that normally charged in the country for comparable works, any license granted under this Article shall terminate if such translation is in the same language and with substantially the same content as the translation published under the license. Any copies already made before the license terminates may continue to be distributed until their stock is exhausted.

(7) For works which are composed mainly of illustrations, a license to make and publish a translation of the text and to reproduce and publish the illustrations may be granted only if the conditions of Article III are also fulfilled.

(8) No license shall be granted under this Article when the author has withdrawn from circulation all copies of his work.

(9)

(a) A license to make a translation of a work which has been published in printed or analogous forms of reproduction may also be granted to any broadcasting organization having its headquarters in a country referred to in paragraph (1), upon an application made to the competent authority of that country by the said organization, provided that all of the following conditions are met:

(i) the translation is made from a copy made and acquired in accordance with the laws of the said country;

(ii) the translation is only for use in broadcasts intended exclusively for teaching or for the dissemination of the results of specialized technical or scientific research to experts in a particular profession;

(iii) the translation is used exclusively for the purposes referred to in condition (ii) through broadcasts made lawfully and intended for recipients on the territory of the said country, including broadcasts made through the medium of sound or visual recordings lawfully and exclusively made for the purpose of such broadcasts;

(iv) all uses made of the translation are without any commercial purpose.

(b) Sound or visual recordings of a translation which was made by a broadcasting organization under a license granted by virtue of this paragraph may, for the purposes and subject to the conditions referred to in subparagraph (a) and with the agreement of that organization, also be used by any other broadcasting organization having its headquarters in the country whose competent authority granted the license in question.

(c) Provided that all of the criteria and conditions set out in subparagraph (a) are met, a license may also be granted to a broadcasting organization to translate any text incorporated in an audio-visual fixation where such fixation was itself prepared and published for the sole purpose of being used in connection with systematic instructional activities.

(d) Subject to subparagraphs (a) to (c), the provisions of the preceding paragraphs shall apply to the grant and exercise of any license granted under this paragraph.

 

Article III. Limitation on the Right of Reproduction: 1. Licenses grantable by competent authority; 2. to 5. Conditions allowing the grant of such licenses; 6. Termination of licenses; 7. Works to which this Article applies

(1) Any country which has declared that it will avail itself of the faculty provided for in this Article shall be entitled to substitute for the exclusive right of reproduction provided for in Article 9 a system of non-exclusive and non-transferable licenses, granted by the competent authority under the following conditions and subject to Article IV.

(2)

(a) If, in relation to a work to which this Article applies by virtue of paragraph (7), after the expiration of

(i) the relevant period specified in paragraph (3), commencing on the date of first publication of a particular edition of the work, or

(ii) any longer period determined by national legislation of the country referred to in paragraph (1), commencing on the same date, copies of such edition have not been distributed in that country to the general public or in connection with systematic instructional activities, by the owner of the right of reproduction or with his authorization, at a price reasonably related to that normally charged in the country for comparable works, any national of such country may obtain a license to reproduce and publish such edition at that or a lower price for use in connection with systematic instructional activities.

(b) A license to reproduce and publish an edition which has been distributed as described in subparagraph (a) may also be granted under the conditions provided for in this Article if, after the expiration of the applicable period, no authorized copies of that edition have been on sale for a period of six months in the country concerned to the general public or in connection with systematic instructional activities at a price reasonably related to that normally charged in the country for comparable works.

(3) The period referred to in paragraph (2)(a)(i) shall be five years, except that

(i) for works of the natural and physical sciences, including mathematics, and of technology, the period shall be three years;

(ii) for works of fiction, poetry, drama and music, and for art books, the period shall be seven years.

(4)

(a) No license obtainable after three years shall be granted under this Article until a period of six months has elapsed

(i) from the date on which the applicant complies with the requirements mentioned in Article IV(1), or

(ii) where the identity or the address of the owner of the right of reproduction is unknown, from the date on which the applicant sends, as provided for in Article IV(2), copies of his application submitted to the authority competent to grant the license.

(b) Where licenses are obtainable after other periods and Article IV(2) is applicable, no license shall be granted until a period of three months has elapsed from the date of the dispatch of the copies of the application.

(c) If, during the period of six or three months referred to in subparagraphs (a) and (b), a distribution as described in paragraph (2)(a) has taken place, no license shall be granted under this Article.

(d) No license shall be granted if the author has withdrawn from circulation all copies of the edition for the reproduction and publication of which the license has been applied for.

(5) A license to reproduce and publish a translation of a work shall not be granted under this Article in the following cases:

(i) where the translation was not published by the owner of the right of translation or with his authorization, or

(ii) where the translation is not in a language in general use in the country in which the license is applied for.

(6) If copies of an edition of a work are distributed in the country referred to in paragraph (1) to the general public or in connection with systematic instructional activities, by the owner of the right of reproduction or with his authorization, at a price reasonably related to that normally charged in the country for comparable works, any license granted under this Article shall terminate if such edition is in the same language and with substantially the same content as the edition which was published under the said license. Any copies already made before the license terminates may continue to be distributed until their stock is exhausted.

(7)

(a) Subject to subparagraph (b), the works to which this Article applies shall be limited to works published in printed or analogous forms of reproduction.

(b) This Article shall also apply to the reproduction in audio-visual form of lawfully made audio-visual fixations including any protected works incorporated therein and to the translation of any incorporated text into a language in general use in the country in which the license is applied for, always provided that the audio-visual fixations in question were prepared and published for the sole purpose of being used in connection with systematic instructional activities.

 

Article IV. Provisions Common to Licenses Under Articles II and III: 1. and 2. Procedure; 3. Indication of author and title of work; 4. Exportation of copies; 5. Notice; 6. Compensation

(1) A license under Article II or Article III may be granted only if the applicant, in accordance with the procedure of the country concerned, establishes either that he has requested, and has been denied, authorization by the owner of the right to make and publish the translation or to reproduce and publish the edition, as the case may be, or that, after due diligence on his part, he was unable to find the owner of the right. At the same time as making the request, the applicant shall inform any national or international information center referred to in paragraph (2).

(2) If the owner of the right cannot be found, the applicant for a license shall send, by registered airmail, copies of his application, submitted to the authority competent to grant the license, to the publisher whose name appears on the work and to any national or international information center which may have been designated, in a notification to that effect deposited with the Director General, by the Government of the country in which the publisher is believed to have his principal place of business.

(3) The name of the author shall be indicated on all copies of the translation or reproduction published under a license granted under Article II or Article III. The title of the work shall appear on all such copies. In the case of a translation, the original title of the work shall appear in any case on all the said copies.

(4)

(a) No license granted under Article II or Article III shall extend to the export of copies, and any such license shall be valid only for publication of the translation or of the reproduction, as the case may be, in the territory of the country in which it has been applied for.

(b) For the purposes of subparagraph (a), the notion of export shall include the sending of copies from any territory to the country which, in respect of that territory, has made a declaration under

 

Article I(5).

(c) Where a governmental or other public entity of a country which has granted a license to make a translation under Article II into a language other than English, French or Spanish sends copies of a translation published under such license to another country, such sending of copies shall not, for the purposes of subparagraph (a), be considered to constitute export if all of the following conditions are met:

(i) the recipients are individuals who are nationals of the country whose competent authority has granted the license, or organizations grouping such individuals;

(ii) the copies are to be used only for the purpose of teaching, scholarship or research;

(iii) the sending of the copies and their subsequent distribution to recipients is without any commercial purpose; and

(iv) the country to which the copies have been sent has agreed with the country whose competent authority has granted the license to allow the receipt, or distribution, or both, and the Director General has been notified of the agreement by the Government of the country in which the license has been granted.

(5) All copies published under a license granted by virtue of Article II or Article III shall bear a notice in the appropriate language stating that the copies are available for distribution only in the country or territory to which the said license applies.

(6)

(a) Due provision shall be made at the national level to ensure

(i) that the license provides, in favour of the owner of the right of translation or of reproduction, as the case may be, for just compensation that is consistent with standards of royalties normally operating on licenses freely negotiated between persons in the two countries concerned, and

(ii) payment and transmittal of the compensation: should national currency regulations intervene, the competent authority shall make all efforts, by the use of international machinery, to ensure transmittal in internationally convertible currency or its equivalent.

(b) Due provision shall be made by national legislation to ensure a correct translation of the work, or an accurate reproduction of the particular edition, as the case may be.

 

Article V. Alternative Possibility for Limitation of the Right of Translation: 1. Regime provided for under the 1886 and 1896 Acts; 2. No possibility of change to regime under Article II; 3. Time limit for choosing the alternative possibility

(1)

(a) Any country entitled to make a declaration that it will avail itself of the faculty provided for in Article II may, instead, at the time of ratifying or acceding to this Act:

(i) if it is a country to which Article 30(2)(a) applies, make a declaration under that provision as far as the right of translation is concerned;

(ii) if it is a country to which Article 30(2)(a) does not apply, and even if it is not a country outside the Union, make a declaration as provided for in Article 30(2)(b), first sentence.

(b) In the case of a country which ceases to be regarded as a developing country as referred to in Article I(1), a declaration made according to this paragraph shall be effective until the date on which the period applicable under Article I(3) expires.

(c) Any country which has made a declaration according to this paragraph may not subsequently avail itself of the faculty provided for in Article II even if it withdraws the said declaration.

(2) Subject to paragraph (3), any country which has availed itself of the faculty provided for in Article II may not subsequently make a declaration according to paragraph (1).

(3) Any country which has ceased to be regarded as a developing country as referred to in Article I(1) may, not later than two years prior to the expiration of the period applicable under Article I(3), make a declaration to the effect provided for in Article 30(2)(b), first sentence, notwithstanding the fact that it is not a country outside the Union. Such declaration shall take effect at the date on which the period applicable under Article I(3) expires.

 

Article VI. Possibilities of applying, or admitting the application of, certain provisions of the Appendix before becoming bound by it: 1. Declaration; 2. Depository and effective date of declaration

(1) Any country of the Union may declare, as from the date of this Act, and at any time before becoming bound by Articles 1 to 21 and this Appendix:

(i) if it is a country which, were it bound by Articles 1 to 21 and this Appendix, would be entitled to avail itself of the faculties referred to in Article I(1), that it will apply the provisions of Article II or of Article III or of both to works whose country of origin is a country which, pursuant to (ii) below, admits the application of those Articles to such works, or which is bound by Articles 1 to 21 and this Appendix; such declaration may, instead of referring to Article II, refer to Article V;

(ii) that it admits the application of this Appendix to works of which it is the country of origin by countries which have made a declaration under (i) above or a notification under Article I.

(2) Any declaration made under paragraph (1) shall be in writing and shall be deposited with the Director General. The declaration shall become effective from the date of its deposit.

Bishkek January 14, 1998 # 6

 

LAW OF THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC

On copyright and related rights

 

 

Title I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

 

Article 1. Subject of the Law

This Law shall regulate relations arising from creation and exploitation of scientific, literary and artistic works (copyright), phonograms, performances, stage productions, and the programs of television and radio broadcasting and cable distribution organizations (related rights).

 

Article 2. Legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic on Copyright and Related Rights

1. The legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic on copyright and related rights consists of this Law, which forms a part of the civil legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic, other normative legal acts of the Kyrgyz Republic that are enacted pursuant to this Law.

2. Where an international agreement to which the Kyrgyz Republic is party contains rules different from those set forth in the present Law, the rules of the international agreement shall be applicable.

Article 3. State Regulation in the Area of Protecting Copyright and Related Rights

1. State regulation in the field of protection of copyright and related rights is implemented by the State Intellectual Property Agency under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic (hereinafter referred to as Kyrgyzpatent).

2. Kyrgyzpatent is the body that implements state management in the field of copyright and related rights, promotes establishment of legal conditions for the development of creative work in the field of science, literature and art, realization of authors’ and owners of related rights authorities, including the right to appeal to the court, conclude an agreement on the use of copyright as well as collection and payment of authors’ royalties.

The main tasks, functions and authorities of Kyrgyzpatent shall be specified by the present Law and other normative acts of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The Regulation on Kyrgyzpatent shall be approved by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.

3. In order to develop the culture of the Kyrgyz Republic and promote creative activities of the authors, the State Intellectual Property Fund shall be established. Regulation on the State Intellectual Property Fund shall be approved by Kyrgyzpatent.

 

Article 4. Basic Concepts

For the purposes of this Law the following terms shall have the meanings specified:

“author” means a natural person, whose creative effort has brought about the creation of a work;

“audiovisual work” is a work consisting of a fixed series of interconnected images (with or without sound accompaniment), which is intended to be made visible and (where the images are accompanied by sound) audible via appropriate technical equipment; audio-visual works include cinematographic works and all works expressed by means comparable to cinematography (TV and video films, fixed projections slide shows, and the like), regardless of the manner in which they are initially or subsequently fixed “database” means an objective form for the representation and organization of a body of data (relating to articles, accounts and etc.), so systematized so as to be susceptible of retrieval and processing with a computer; “reproduction of a work” means making of one or more copies of the work or part of a work in any form, including the form of a sound or visual recording; or the making of one or more three-dimensional copies of a two- dimensional work or one or more two-dimensional copies of a three dimensional work; the storage of a work in a computer memory shall also constitute reproduction;

“reproduction of a phonogram” means the making of one or more copies of a phonogram or part of a phonogram on any physical medium;

“recording” means the fixing, with technical aids, of sounds and/or images in any material form that permits them to be repeatedly perceived, reproduced or communicated;

“producer of an audiovisual work” means the natural person or legal entity that has taken the initiative and responsibility for the production of the audio-visual work; in the absence of proof to the contrary, the natural person or legal entity named in the customary manner on an audiovisual work shall be considered the producer of that work;

“performance” means presentation of works, phonograms, interpretations or renditions by means of acting, recitation, singing or dancing either live or with technical aids (broadcasting, cable television or the like); or by the showing of the pictures an audiovisual work (with or without sound accompaniment) in their normal sequence;

“performer” means the actor, singer, musician, dancer or any other person who performs sings, plays on a musical instrument or in any other way a literary or artistic work (including a variety turn, circus act or puppet show), as well as the producer or director of a play and the orchestra conductor;

“counterfeit copies” mean copies of a work or of a phonogram, production and distribution of which shall entail infringement of copyright and related rights as well as copies of the works and phonograms protected in the Kyrgyz Republic in compliance with this Law, which are imported without the consent of copyright and related right holders of the Kyrgyz Republic from the countries in which these works and phonograms have never been protected or ceased to be protected;

“the owner of copyright and (or) related rights” means the author or performer, in the cases when the author or performer is endowed with economic rights; natural person or legal entity to whom the economic rights were assigned; natural person other than the author or performer, or a legal entity, in the cases when the economic rights were initially assigned to such a natural person or legal entity;

“disclosure of a work” means the act performed with the author’s consent which first makes the work accessible to the public by publication, public presentation, public performance, broadcasting or another means;

“publication” means the putting into circulation of copies of the work or phonogram with the consent of the author of such work or phonogram producer and in sufficient quantity to meet the reasonable needs of the public. Publication is also understood as providing access to a work, phonogram, via electronic information systems;

“broadcasting” means the communication to the public of works, phonograms, performances or programs of broadcasting or cable distribution organizations (including broadcasts of the presentation and or performance) by means of transmission by radio or television (with the exception of cable television); where works, phonograms, performances or programs of broadcasting or cable distribution organizations are relayed by satellite, broadcasting means the act whereby the satellite receives signals from the ground station and retransmits those signals in such a way that works, phonograms, performances, and programs of broadcasting or cable distribution organizations may be communicated to the public, independently of their actual reception of the said public;

“broadcasting by a broadcasting or cable distribution organization” means the broadcast created by the broadcasting or cable distribution organization itself, or, on its instructions and with its funds, by another organization;

“presentation of a work” means the fact of showing the original or a copy of the work either direct or on a screen with the aid of film, photographic slides, a television pictures or other technical means, and the fact of showing the individual images of an audiovisual work without concern for their order;

“users of copyright and/or related rights” means publishing houses, editorial offices of newspapers and magazines, TV and radio studios, cable studios, theaters, concert-spectacle organizations, cinemas, video salons, trade places dealing with sale of audio and video cassettes and laser discs with records, creative collectives regardless of the form of property, as well as natural persons and users of the computer software;

“re-broadcasting” means the broadcasting of works, phonograms, performances, or programs of broadcasting or cable distribution organizations that have already been broadcast; “computer program” means a complex of instructions or rules expressed in words, numbers, codes, symbols, signs or any other form designated for the operation of computers and other computer devices to achieve a certain purpose or result;

“work of applied art” means a work of art in two or three dimensions applied to objects intended for practical use, craft works or works produced in an industrial process;

“producer of a phonogram” means a natural person or a legal entity that has assumed the initiative and responsibility for the first sound recording of performance or other sounds, where such a person must produce it physically or order it and pay for the production; unless proved otherwise, the natural person or legal entity whose name is indicated on a phonogram and (or) its case in the usual manner shall be recognized a producer of a phonogram;

“derivative work” means a product of intellectual creation, based on another work (translation, adaptation, dramatization, alteration, etc.);

“public demonstration, public performance or communication to the public” means any presentation, performance or communication of works, phonograms, performances, and other production or broadcasts of broadcasting, and cable distribution organizations either directly or with technical aids, in a public place or a place in which a large number of persons not belonging to the usual family circle are present irrespective of whether the works, phonograms, performances, other productions or broadcasts by broadcasting or cable distribution organizations are perceived at the place of the communication or in another place at the same time as the communication;

“show producer or director” means the person w ho carries out the direction of a stage, circus, puppet, variety or any other performance;

“reproduction (reprographic reproduction)” means the facsimile reproduction in one or more copies, regardless of the dimensions and form thereof, of originals or copies of written or other graphic works by means of photocopying or with the aid of other technical aid, different from publishing; reprographic reproduction shall not include the storage or reproduction of the said copies in electronic (including digitized) or optical form, or in any other machine-readable form;

“re-broadcasting” means simultaneous transmission of programs (by cable) of one broadcasting organization, exercised by another broadcasting organization;

“rental” means making a copy of a work or phonogram temporarily available for direct or indirect commercial profit;

“communicate” means to show, perform, broadcast or engage in any other act (except for distribution of copies of the work or phonogram), whereby works, phonograms, performances, or programs of broadcasting or cable distribution organizations are made audible or visible whether or not they are actually perceived by the public;

“communicate to the public by cable” means to communicate works, phonograms, performances, or programs of broadcasting or cable distribution organizations to the public by cable, wire, optic fiber or comparable means;

“phonogram” means any exclusive sound recording of performances or other sounds, which may be perceived or reproduced on any other material medium;

“copy of a work” means an exemplar of the work, regardless of the material form in which it is made;

“copy of a phonogram” means the duplicate of a phonogram, on whatever material medium, made directly or indirectly from a phonogram, which includes all or a part of the sounds recorded thereon.

 

Title II. COPYRIGHT

 

Article 5. Scope of Copyright

1. By virtue of this Law, copyright extends:

to works, either disclosed or undisclosed, existing in an objective form in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic, regardless of the nationality of the authors and successors in title;

to works, either disclosed or undisclosed, existing in an objective form beyond the borders the Kyrgyz Republic, in respect of which it is accorded to authors who are nationals of the Kyrgyz Republic and successors in title; to works either disclosed or undisclosed , but existing in any objective form beyond the borders of the Kyrgyz Republic, in respect of which it is accorded under international treaties to which the Kyrgyz Republic is a party, to authors (and their successors in title) who are nationals of other states.

2. A work shall also be considered published in the Kyrgyz Republic if within 30 days following the date of its first publication outside the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic it is published on the said territory.

3. Where protection is granted to a work in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic under the international treaties to which the Kyrgyz Republic is party, the authorship of the work shall be determined by the legislation of the State in the territory of which the legal act occurred that gave rise to ownership of copyright.

 

Article 6. Works Protected by Copyright (subject matter of copyright)

1. The copyright extends to works of science, literature and art that are the result of creative activity, irrespective of the purpose, the merit as well as the manner of expression thereof.

2. The work must be expressed in verbal, written or other objective form allowing the possibility of its perception.

The work in written form or otherwise expressed on a material medium (manuscript, typewritten text, musical score, recording with the aid of technical devices, including audio or video recording, fixation of image in dimensional or three dimensional form, etc.) shall be considered to have an objective form irrespective of its availability to the third parties.

Oral or other work not expressed in a material medium shall be considered to have an objective form if it became available to the third parties for perception (public recitation, public performance, etc.).

3. The copyright shall extend both to disclosed and undisclosed works.

4. Ideas, methods, processes, systems, means, concepts, principles, discoveries and facts may not be protected by copyright.

5. For a copyright to occur no registration of work or observation of any other formalities shall be required.

 

Article 7. Types of Objects of Copyright. Parts of Work, Derivative and Composite Works

1. The following shall be referred to the objects of copyright:

literary works (literary – artistic, scientific, educational, publicist etc.); dramatic and scenario works; musical works with text and without it; music-dramatic works; choreographic and mimed works; audiovisual works (cinematographic, television and video films, slide shows and other cinematographic, television and video production), radio works; works of painting, sculpture, graphics, design and other works of fine arts; works of applied and stage designs; works of architecture, urban planning, garden and park designs; photographic works and works obtained by way analogous to photography; geographical, geological and other maps, plans and sketches and other works related to geography, topography and other sciences; computer software for all types of computers including applied programs and operating systems; other works complying with the requirements established in Article 6 of this Law.

2. The objects of copyright shall be deemed parts of works, their designations and derived works that meet the requirements established in Article 6 of this Law.

The derived works shall include works that are re-works of other works (translations, processing, annotations, abstracts, resumes, surveys, dramatizations, arrangements and other similar works of science, literature and art);

The composite work shall include compilations (encyclopedias, anthologies) and other composite works that according to their selection and arrangement present the result of creative labor.

3. The derived and composite works shall be protected by copyright irrespective of whether or not the works, on which they are based or on which they include, are objects of copyright.

 

Article 8. Works and the Results of Activity Similar to them that Are not Objects of Copyright

The following shall not be objects of copyright:

Official documents (laws, resolutions, decisions and etc.) as well as official translations thereof; State emblems and official signs (flags, armorial bearings, orders, monetary signs and etc.); Works of folklore; Information on the news of the day or information on the current events that are of the common press-information character; The results obtained with the help of technical means for the production of a certain type without creative activity of a man directly targeted for creation of an individual work.

 

Article 9. Author of a Work. Presumption of Authorship.

1. A citizen, by whose creative labor the work is created, shall be considered the author of the work.

Unless proven otherwise, the person indicated as the author in the course of the first publication of the work shall be considered its author.

2. Where a published work is anonymous or pseudonymous (unless the author’s pseudonym leaves his identity in no doubt), the publisher, the name or denomination of which is indicated on the work, shall be presumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, to represent the author and shall be empowered to defend and exercise the author’s rights. . This provision shall be effective until such time the author of the work reveals his identity and claims authorship of the work.

3. In order to have his exclusive economic rights recognized, the owner may use a copyright notice, which should be placed on every copy of the work and should consist of the following three elements:

• a circled capital letter C: © • the name of the owner of the exclusive rights; • the year of first publication of the work.

4. The author of a work or other successor shall have a right to register his/her work any time within the term of protection of copyright in the state registers. The person, registering the copyright object, shall be issued a certificate of an established sample. Fee in the amount of cost of means spent for registration shall be charged.

 

Article 10. Joint Authorship

1. The copyright in a work that is the product of the joint creative work of two or more persons shall belong jointly to co-authors, regardless of whether such work constitutes an indivisible whole or is composed of parts, each with a relevance of its own.

A part of a work shall be deemed to have a relevance of its own, if it can be used independently of the other parts of the same of work.

Unless otherwise agreed between themselves, each of the co-authors may exploit as he sees fit that part of the work with a relevance of its own that he has created.

Each of the co-authors shall be entitled to use part of the work that has been created by him, that has independent meaning, at his own discretion unless otherwise provided by the agreement between them.

2. As a rule, the relationship between co-authors shall be established on the basis of the agreement. In the absence of such agreement right to a work shall be exercised mutually by all co-authors and the remuneration shall be distributed equally among them.

If the work of the co-authors constitutes an indivisible whole, none of the co-authors shall be entitled to prohibit the exploitation of a work without valid reason.

 

Article 11. Copyright of Compilers of Collections and Other Composite Works

1. The author of a collection or any other composite works (compiler) shall enjoy copyright in the selection or arrangement of subject matter that he has made insofar as that selection or arrangement is the result of creative effort of compilation.

The compiler shall enjoy copyright subject to respect the rights of the author of each of the works included into the composite work.

The compiler’s copyright must not be harmful to the rights of authors whose works are included into the composite work.

The authors of the works included into a composite work shall have the right to exploit his own work independently of the composite work unless the author’s contract provides otherwise.

Notwithstanding the compiler’s copyright, any third party may make an independent selection or arrangement of the same subject matter for the purposes of creation of a composite work of his own.

2. The publisher of encyclopedias, encyclopedic dictionaries, periodic and continuing

collections of scientific works, newspapers, magazines and other periodicals shall enjoy the exclusive right to use such publications. The editor shall have the right to mention his name or to demand such mention whenever the said publications are exploited.

The authors of the works included in the said publications shall retain the exclusive rights to exploit their works independently of the publication as of the whole work.

 

Article 12. Copyright of Translators and Other Authors of Derived Works

1. Translators and other authors of derived works shall enjoy copyright in translations, adaptations, arrangements or any other transformations made by them.

The translators and the authors of a derived work shall enjoy copyright in the works created by him, subject to the right of the author of the work that he has translated, adapted, arranged or otherwise transformed.

2. The copyright of translators or authors of a derived works shall not prevent other persons from doing their own translations and transformations of the same works.

 

Article 13. Copyright to Audiovisual Work

1. The following shall be recognized as authors of audiovisual works:

Author of the scenario (scriptwriter); Author of the musical work, (with or without words) that has been specially created for this audiovisual work (composer). Producer; Cameraman; Stage designer.

2. The conclusion of a contract for the making of an audiovisual work shall entail assignment, by the authors of this work to the producer thereof, of the exclusive rights of reproduction, distribution, public performance, communication to the public by cable, broadcasting or any other public communication of the audiovisual work, as well as subtitling and dubbing of the text of this work unless otherwise provided in the contract. These rights shall be effective throughout the period of validity of the copyright in audiovisual work.

The producer of an audiovisual work shall have the right to mention his name or to demand such mention whenever the work is exploited.

3. In the case of public performance of an audiovisual work, the author of a musical work (with or without words) created specially for audiovisual work shall retain the right to remuneration for every public performance of audiovisual work, its public communication as well as rental of copies of an audiovisual work.

4. The authors of works constituting the audiovisual work, whether preexisting (for instance, the author of a novel from which the scenario is taken), or created in the making of the audiovisual work (for instance, the camera director, artistic director and others), shall enjoy copyright in his own work.

5. Destruction of the final version of the film (negatives, original recording) shall be prohibited without consent of the author or other owners of propriety rights to the film.

 

Article 14. Copyright in a Service-Related Work

1. The copyright in a work created in the course of duty obligations or in the performance of an assignment expressly given by the employer (service-related work) shall belong to the author of the said work.

2. The exclusive right to exploit the service related work in a way conditioned by the

purpose of assignment and limits arising from it shall belong to the person with whom the author is bound by employment relations (employer), unless otherwise provided in the contract concluded by the said person with the author.

The amount of author’s remuneration for each type of use of the service-related work, and the manner of payment thereof, shall be specified in the contract concluded by the author and the employer.

3. The employer shall have the right to mention his name or demand such mention in connection with any exploitation of the service-related work.

4. After ten years from the moment of work presentation and even earlier, provided that there is the consent of the employer – and earlier, the right of the author to use the work and to obtain author’s remuneration shall belong to him fully irrespective of the contract concluded with the employer.

5. The provisions of this Article shall not apply to the creation, in the course of duty obligations or the performance of an assignment of encyclopedias, encyclopedic dictionaries, periodicals and collections of scientific works – published in one or in several installments, newspapers, magazines and other periodicals.

 

Article 15. Moral Rights

1. The author shall enjoy the following moral rights in relation to his work:

Right of authorship – the right to be recognized the author of a work/ the right to have his authorship of the work recognized;

Right to be named – the right to exploit or authorize the exploitation of a work thereof, either with the mention of his true name or his pseudonym or without the indication of a name, i.e. anonymously;

Right of disclosure – the right to disclose the work or to authorize the disclosure thereof, including the right to disavow or withdraw;

The right to the protection of the work, including its title thereof, against any distortion or any other derogatory act liable to prejudice his honor or dignity (right to the protection of the author’s reputation).

2. The author shall have the right to renounce a decision taken earlier to disclose the work (right to disavow or withdraw), provided that the user is indemnified for any damages, including lost earnings, attributable to the said decision. If the work has already been disclosed, the author shall be bound to make the said withdrawal known to the public. In this event he may withdraw from circulation, at his own expense, the earlier produced copies of the work. The provision of this paragraph shall not apply to service-related works.

3. The moral rights shall belong to the author independently of his economic rights, and the author shall retain them even where the exclusive rights to exploit the work is assigned.

 

Article 16. Economic Rights

1. The author shall enjoy the exclusive right to use his work in any form and by any means.

2. The exclusive rights of the author to exploit shall be construed to mean the right to perform or authorize the following actions:

Reproduction of the work (right to reproduction); Distribution of copies of the work by any means, including sale, rental and etc., (right of distribution); Importation of copies of the work for the purposes of distribution, including that of copies produced with the permission of the exclusive copyright owner (right to importation); Presentation of the work in public (right to public presentation); Performance of the work in public (right to public performance); Communication of the work to the public by broadcasting and/or re-broadcasting (right of broadcasting); Communication the work to the public by cable, wire or comparable means (right of communication to the public by cable); Translation of the work (right of translation); and

Arrangement, adaptation or other transformation of the work (right of adaptation).

The author’s exclusive rights in relation to the project for a design work, architectural work, a work of urban planning or a work of park and garden design shall extend also to the practical implementation of such projects. The author of the accepted architectural project shall be entitled to demand that the party who commissioned the work allow him to take part in the realization of his project at the stage of the production of the documentary material relating to the construction of the building or other structure. Unless otherwise provided in the agreement.

3. Where copies of a lawfully legitimately published work have been put into circulation by means of sale, their subsequent distribution shall not require authorization by the author and shall not give rise to the payment of remuneration to the author without consent of the author and payment of author’s remuneration.

The right to distribute copies of a work by means rental of an audio-visual work, computer software, database, work fixed in a phonogram, and musical notation shall belong to the author regardless of the property right to such copies.

4. The amount and the procedure for calculating the amount of author’s remuneration for each form of exploitation of a work shall be determined by the author’s contract and by the contracts that organizations for the collective administration of the economic rights of the authors conclude with users.

5. The rights of authors specified in paragraph 2 of this Article shall be subject to limitations specified in Articles 18 to 26 of this Law which shall apply insofar as the uses in question do not unjustifiably prejudice the normal exploitation of the work and do not without valid reason violate the legitimate interests of the author.

 

Article 17. Right of Access to Works of Fine Arts. Right of Succession

1. The author of a work of fine arts shall have the right to require the owner of the work that he allows him to exercise his/her right of reproduction of his work (right of access). The owner of a work should not be required to deliver the work to the author.

2. The transfer of ownership to a work of fine art (whether for consideration or free of charge) from the author to a third party shall constitute the first sale of that work.

For each case of a public resale of the original of a work of fine art (sale by auction, or at an art gallery, art salon, store and etc.,) after the first alienation of the right of ownership for such a work of fine arts, the author or his heirs shall be entitled to receive remuneration from the seller, representing 5 percent of such reselling price (resale royalty). That right shall be inalienable and transferable exclusively to the author’s heirs by law or testament throughout the duration of the copyright.

 

Article 18. Reproduction of Works for Personal Purposes without the Author’s Consent and Payment of Author’s Remuneration

1. The reproduction of a lawfully disclosed work for exclusively personal purposes shall be authorized without need for author’s consent or payment of remuneration except in the cases provided for in Article 26 of this Law.

2. The provisions of the first paragraph of this Article shall not apply in relation to:

Reproduction of architectural works in the form of comparable buildings and structures; Reproduction of databases or substantial parts thereof; Reproduction of computer programs with the exception of cases provided for in Article 25 of this Law; Reproduction of books (in full) and musical scores.

 

Article 19. Use of a Work without Consent of the Author and Payment of Author’s Remuneration

1. The following shall be authorized without the author’s consent and without payment of author’s remuneration but with obligatory indication of the author’s name whose work is used and the source of the borrowing:

1) The quotation from lawfully disclosed works in the original and translation for scientific, research, polemic, critic and information purposes to the extent justified by the purpose of such quotation, including reproduction of excerpts from newspaper and magazine articles in the form of press reviews;

2) The use of lawfully disclosed works and excerpts therefrom as illustrations in publications, radio and TV broadcasts and educational audio and video recordings to the extent justified by the intended purpose;

3) The reproduction in newspapers, the broadcasting or communication to general public by cable of legitimately published articles in newspapers or magazines on current economic, politics, social and religious topics or of broadcast works of the same nature in cases where such reproduction, broadcast or communication by cable have not been expressly prohibited by the author,

4) The reproduction in newspapers, the broadcasting or communication to the public by cable of political speeches, addresses, lectures and other works of the same nature given in public to the extent justified by an informational purpose. In such cases the author shall retain the right to publication of such works in collections,

5) The reproduction or communication of the current events to the public in reviews by means of photography, broadcasting or public cable communication of works that are seen or heard in the course of such events to the extent justified by the informational purpose. In such cases the author shall retain the right to publication of such works in collections;

6) The reproduction of lawfully published works without gainful intent by using the Braille system or other special means for the blind, except for works specifically created for such means of reproduction.

2. Export of copy of a work by natural person without consent of the author or other owners of copyright and without payment of remuneration shall be allowed only for personal purposes, with the exception of the works, export of which damages the national interest of the republic, the list of which is determined in the established order.

 

Article 20. Use of Works by Reprographic Reproduction

The following may be reproduced in a single copy without gainful intent and without the author’s consent and payment of remuneration, but with obligatory indication of the author’s name whose works are used and the source of the borrowing:

1) Of a lawfully published works insofar as the reproduction of the work by libraries and archive service and its purpose is to restore or replace lost or damaged copies and provide the work to other libraries that on some reasons do not have lost works from their collections;

2) Isolated articles and succinct works lawfully published in collections, newspapers or other periodical publications, and short extracts from legitimately published written works (with or without illustrations) by libraries and archives as requested by individuals for educational and research purposes; and

3) Isolated articles and succinct works lawfully published in collections, newspapers and other periodical publications or of short extracts from legitimately published written works (with or without illustrations) by educational institutions to be used in classes.

 

Article 21. Free Use of Works Permanently Located in a Public Place

The works of architecture, photography or fine arts permanently located in a place open to general public may be reproduced, broadcast, or communicated to the public by cable without the author’s consent and payment of author’s remuneration, with the exception of cases where the presentation of the work constitutes the main feature of the said reproduction, broadcast or communication to the public by cable or if it is used for commercial purposes.

 

Article 22. Free Public Performance

Musical works may be performed publicly without the author’s consent and payment of the author’s remuneration during official and religious ceremonies, as well as funerals, to such extent as may be justified by the nature of the said ceremonies.

 

Article 23. Free Reproduction for Judicial and Administrative Purposes

Works may be reproduced without the author’s consent and payment of author’s remuneration for the purposes of judicial or administrative proceedings to the extent justified by this purpose.

 

Article 24. Free Ephemeral Recording by a Broadcasting Organization

Radio or television broadcasting organization may, without consent of the author and payment of any additional remuneration, make an ephemeral recording of a work for which such an organization has obtained the right to broadcast provided that such recording is made by a broadcasting organization with its own equipment and for its own broadcasts. The broadcasting organization is obligated to destroy such recording within six months after it was made unless a longer term has been agreed upon with the author of the recorded work. Such recording may be preserved in official archives without the author’s consent if it is of purely documentary nature.

 

Article 25. Free Reproduction of Computer Software and Databases. Decompilation of Computer Programs

1. A person lawfully in possession of a copy of a computer program or database shall have the right, without obtaining permission of the author or other owner of the exclusive rights to use such work and without paying any additional remuneration:

1) make alterations to the computer software or database exclusively where the purposes thereof is solely to ensure their operation on the user’s material , and perform any act in relation to the operation of the computer program or a database according to its intended purpose, including any inputting or storing in computer memory (that of an individual or that of one of computers in a network), as well as correction of obvious errors , unless otherwise provided by the contract concluded with the author; and

2) make a copy of the computer program or data base provided that this copy is solely for archiving or for replacement of a lawfully acquired copy in the event that the original of the software or database having been lost, destroyed or rendered useless . In these events the copy of computer program or database may not be used for purposes other than stipulated in subparagraph (1) of this paragraph and must be destroyed should the possession of the copy of this computer program or database cease to be lawful.

2. Any person lawfully in possession of a copy of a computer program may without permission of the author or any other holder of the exclusive rights and without payment of additional remuneration, reproduce or convert the object code into a source code (decompile the computer program) or entrust other persons to provide these actions if it is necessary to achieve the ability of a computer program independently developed by this person to interact with other programs which may interact with program being decompiled provided that the following conditions are observed:

1) the person concerned must not previously have had access to other sources capable of providing them with the information necessary to insure the interactive capability;

2) the acts mentioned must only be performed in relation to the parts of the computer program the decompilation of which is essential to the achievement of the interactive capability;

3) the information obtained in the result of decompilation may only be used to achieve the interactive capability of independently created computer software with other programs and may not be passed on to third parties except where necessary to insure the interactive capability of the independently created computer program and it may not be used for the development of a computer program of a type essentially comparable to the decompiled computer software or performance of any other action prejudicial to copyright.

3. Application of the provisions of this Article must not cause unjustifiable affect the normal use of a computer software or data base and infringe upon the legitimate interests of the author or any other holder of the exclusive rights to such computer program or data base.

 

Article 26. Reproduction of the Work for Personal Purposes without Author’s Consent but Subject to Payment of Author’s Remuneration

1. Notwithstanding the provisions of Articles 16, 37 and 38 of this Law, the reproduction of an audiovisual work or sound recording of a work for exclusively personal purposes shall be permissible without consent of the author of a work, performer and phonogram producers, but subject to payment of remuneration to them.

2. The remuneration for the reproduction referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be paid by the manufacturers or importers of the equipment (audio and video recorders and other equipment) and recording material (sound and/or video recording and cassettes, optical disks, compact discs and other material media) used for such reproduction.

This remuneration shall be collected and distributed by one of the organizations for collective administration of the economic rights of the authors, phonogram producers and performers under an agreement concluded with the said organization (Article 45 of this Law). Unless otherwise provided by this agreement, remuneration shall be distributed as follows: forty percent shall go to the authors, thirty percent shall go to the performers, and thirty percent to the phonogram producers.

The amount of remuneration and the manner of its payment shall be determined by an agreement between the aforementioned manufacturers and importers on the one hand, and the organizations managing economic rights of authors, phonogram producers and performers on a collective basis on the other hand, but if the parties fail to reach such an agreement, by Kyrgyzpatent.

3. No remuneration shall be paid for the recording equipment and material referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article which are subject to export, or constitute professional equipment not intended for use for home recording.

 

Article 27. Term of Copyright

1. The copyright shall be valid during the lifetime of the author and for fifty years after his death, beginning from the first of January of the year following the year of the author’s death.

2. The copyright to a work created in joint authorship shall be effective during the whole life of co-authors and fifty years after the death of the last co-author who outlived other co-authors.

3. The copyright to a work issued for the first time under pseudonym or anonymously shall have effect during fifty years beginning from the first of January of the year following the year the work was published.

If a pseudonym or anonymous name is disclosed during the established term, the terms indicated in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be applied.

4. The copyright shall belong to the author’s heirs and inherited during the terms indicated in paragraph 1 of this Article. During the same terms the copyright shall belong to successors who obtained this right due to the agreement with the author, his heirs and future legal successors.

5. The copyright in a posthumous work shall have effect for fifty years after the publication of the work, beginning from January 1 after the year following the year of its publication.

6. The authorship, name of the author and inviolability of the work shall be protected permanently.

 

Article 28. Public Domain

1. On the expiration of the term copyright in a work, the work shall fall into the public domain.

Works that have never enjoyed protection in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic shall likewise be deemed fallen into the public domain.

2. Works that have fallen into the public domain may be freely used by any person without payment of remuneration. In this case the right to authorship, right to a name and the right to inviolability of the work (Article 15 of this Law) shall be respected.

3. The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic shall establish the amount of deductions paid to the State Intellectual Property Fund for the use of works fallen into the public domain in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic.

 

Article 29. Transfer of Copyright by Succession

The copyright is transferable by succession.

Personal non-economic rights of the author provided by Article 15 of the present Law shall not be transferable by succession. The author’s heirs shall be entitled to protect the indicated rights. These rights of the heirs shall not be limited by any term.

Where the author has no heirs the defense of the rights in question shall be ensure by Kyrgyzpatent.

 

Article 30. Assignment of Economic Rights. Author’s Contracts

1. The assignment of economic rights referred to in Article 16 of this Law shall be effected by means of an author’s contract except as provided in Articles 18 to 26 of this Law.

The economic rights may be the subject of an author’s contract for the assignment of exclusive or an author’s contract for assignment of non-exclusive rights.

2. The author’s contract on the assignment of the exclusive rights shall allow the use of the work in a certain way and within the limits established by the contract only to the assignee and shall confer on that person the right to prohibit the use of the work by third parties.

The right to prohibit third parties from exploiting the work may be exercised by the author of the work where the person to whom the exclusive rights have been assigned does not avail himself of that right.

3. The author’s contract for the assignment of non-exclusive rights shall allow the user to exploit the work under the same conditions as the owner of the exclusive rights who has granted those rights to him and/or other persons who have obtained permission to exploit this work by the same means.

4. The rights to which the author’s contract is related shall be deemed non-exclusive unless otherwise expressly stipulated in the agreement.

 

Article 31. Conditions of the Author’s Agreement

1. The author’s contract shall stipulate:

1) the modes of exploitation of the work (specific rights assigned under the contract ); 2) the period and the territory for which the rights are assignment ; 3) the amount of remuneration and/or the procedure of calculation of the amount of remuneration for each mode of exploitation of the work, the procedure and terms of payment; and 4) other conditions that shall be deemed essential by parties for the contract concerned.

Should an author’s contract not specify the condition on the term for which the right is assigned, the contract may be annulled by the author on the expiration of five years from the date of its conclusion if the user is notified in writing about it six months prior to the annulment.

The author’s contract concluded for a long term may be canceled by the author on the expiration of ten years as of the date of conclusion of an agreement, if the user is notified in a written form in six months before abrogation of an agreement. The author shall have this right every ten years.

Should the author’s contract not specify conditions of the territory to which the right is assigned, the term of the right assigned under the contract shall be limited to the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic.

2. The rights to use a work that have not been directly assigned under the author’s contract shall be deemed as not assigned.

The rights to exploitation of the work that are not known at the moment of conclusion the contract may not be the subject of the author’s contract.

3. Remuneration shall be determined in the author’s contract as a percentage of the revenue derived from the exploitation of the work by the intended means or, where that is not possible in view of the nature of the work or the particular circumstances of the exploitation thereof, in the amount fixed in the contract or otherwise.

The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic shall establish the minimum rates of author’s remuneration. The minimum amounts of author’s remuneration shall be indexed at the same time as minimum wage amounts.

If in the author’s contract for the publication or some other form of reproduction of the work remuneration is calculated as a fixed sum, the contract shall specify the maximum print run of the work.

4. The rights assigned under the author’s contract may be assigned, in its entirety or in part, to other persons only if this is expressly indicated by the contract.

5. The author’s contract may not relate to exploitation rights arising in connection with works that the author may create in the future.

6. Any clause in an author’s contract that imposes limits on the author regarding the future creation of works on a particular subject or in a particular field shall be deemed invalid.

7. The clauses of an author’s contract that are contrary to the provisions of this law shall be deemed invalid.

8. The party that failed to perform or improperly performed its obligations under the author’s contract must indemnify the losses caused to the other party.

 

Article 32. The Form of the Author’s Contract

1. The author’s contract shall be concluded in writing. The author’s contract on the use of a work in the periodical press may be concluded by word of mouth.

2. In the course of sale of copies of a computer programs and databases and granting an access thereto to general users, a special procedure for concluding the agreements may be used as set forth by the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic.

3. The author’s contract may be registered in Kyrgyzpatent upon the agreement of the parties. Registration fees shall be charged for registration of the agreement, the amount and the procedure of payment shall be established by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Kyrgyzpatent is drafting samples of the author’s contracts.

 

Article 33. The Author’s Order Contract

1. Personal non-economic right to the work created due to the order contract shall belong to the author.

2. The exclusive rights to use ordered work shall belong to a party specified in the conditions of the author’s order contract.

3. Pursuant to the author’s order contract, the author is obligated to create a work in accordance with the conditions of the agreement and transfer it to the customer.

4. The commissioning party shall be bound to pay an advance to the author on the remuneration determined in the agreement. The amount of the advance, the procedure and time limits for the payment of the advance shall be set forth in the contract upon the agreement of the parties.

5. If the author fails to submit the ordered work in accordance with the conditions of the order agreement, he/she shall be obligated to indemnify/compensate the actual prejudice/damage caused thereby/to the customer.

 

Title III. RELATED RIGHTS

 

Article 34. Scope of Related Rights

1. The rights of a performer shall be recognized as belonging thereto pursuant to this Law in the events if:

1) the performer is a national of the Kyrgyz Republic; 2) the performance, staging has first taken place in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic; 3) the performance, staging has been recorded on a phonogram protected pursuant to the provisions of item 2 of this Article; and 4) the performance, staging has not been recorded on a phonogram but is included in a program broadcast or transmitted by cable that is protected under the provisions of item 3 of this Article.

2. The rights of a phonogram producer shall be recognized as belonging thereto pursuant to this Law in the events if:

1) the producer of a phonogram is a national of the Kyrgyz Republic or a legal entity that has an official location on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic; and 2) the phonogram has been first published in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. The phonogram shall be also considered published for the first time on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic, if within 30 days after the date of its publication outside the Kyrgyz Republic it was published in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic.

3. The rights of broadcasting or cable distribution organization shall be recognized as belonging thereto pursuant to this Law if the organization has its headquarters on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic and broadcasts its programs by means of transmitters located on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic.

4. The rights of foreign performers, producers of phonograms, radio, television and cable distribution organizations shall be recognized in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic according to the international agreements of the Kyrgyz Republic.

 

Article 35. Objects of Related Rights

The related rights shall extend to staging, performances, phonograms, and broadcasting and cable distribution organizations irrespective of their purpose, content and merits, as well as the form of expression thereof.

 

Article 36. Subjects of Related Rights

1. The subjects of related rights shall include performers, phonogram producers, and broadcasting and cable distribution organizations.

2. The producer of a phonogram, broadcasting or cable distribution organization shall exercise their rights as specified in this Title, within the limits of the rights that the performer and the author of the work recorded on the phonogram or broadcast or transmitted by cable have granted them by contract.

Authorization to exploit a staging that has been obtained from the producer of the play shall include the need to obtain permission from the other performers participated in the performance, as well as from the author of the work performed.

3. The performer shall exercise the rights specified in this Title provided the rights of the author of the performed work are observed.

4. The origin and exercise of related rights shall not be subject to compliance with any formality. The producer of a phonogram and performer, in order to publicize their rights, have the right to make use of a reserved rights notice which is affixed to each copy and/or on every inlay card of such a phonogram and should consist of three components:

a circled Latin letter P – (P); the name of the owner of the exclusive rights; and the year of first publication of the phonogram.

5. The performer, producer of a phonogram, broadcasting and cable distribution organizations have the right to register their performance, staging, phonogram and broadcast at any time during the effective term of related rights protection in the state registers. A person registering the object of related right shall be granted a certificate in the established form. Kyrgyzpatent shall carry out registration.

Fees in the amount spent on registration shall be charged for the registration of the objects of related rights.

 

Article 37. Rights of the Performer

1. With the exception of cases provided by this Law, the performer shall enjoy the following personal non-economic and economic rights to his/her performance or staging:

– the right to be named; – the right to the protection of the performance or staging against any distortion or other derogatory act liable to prejudice his honor and dignity; and the right to exploit the performance or staging in any form, including the right to be paid remuneration for each such form of use of the performance or staging.

2. The exclusive rights to exploit the performance or staging shall mean the right to perform, authorize or prohibit the following acts:

1) broadcasting or cable communication of the performance or staging to the public insofar , as the performance or staging used for such a program have not been broadcast previously or is not effected on the basis of a recording; 2) recording of a previously unrecorded performance or staging; 3) reproduction of the recording of a performance; 4)broadcasting or cable communication of the recording of a performance insofar as the said recording was originally made for noncommercial purposes; and 5) rental of a phonogram published for commercial purposes, on which a performance has been recorded with the participation of the performer. The right shall be transferred to the producer of a phonogram on the conclusion of a contract for the recording of the performance or staging on a phonogram; in this case the performer shall nevertheless retain the right to remuneration for rental of copies of a phonogram (point 2, Article 39 of this Law).

3. The exclusive right of the performer under subparagraph 3 of paragraph 2 of this Article shall not apply if:

– the initial recording of a performance was made with the consent of the performer; – the reproduction of the performance is made for the same purposes as the recording of the performance to which the performer consented. – the reproduction of the performance is made for the same purposes for which the recording has been made pursuant to the provisions of Article 42 of this Law.

4. The authorizations referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article shall be granted by the performer, or, in the case of a group performance, by the head of the group, in a written contract concluded with the user.

5. The authorization referred to in subparagraphs 1), 2) and 3) of paragraph 2 of this Article shall not be necessary for the rebroadcasting of a performance or staging, the recording for broadcasting purposes and the reproduction of that recording by broadcasting or cable distribution organizations if they are expressly provided for in the contract concluded by the performer with the broadcasting or cable distribution organization. The amount of performer’s remuneration for such a use shall likewise be specified in the contract.

6. The conclusion of the contract for the making of an audiovisual work by the performer and the maker shall entail granting of rights by the performer referred to in subparagraphs 1), 2), 3) and 4) of paragraph 2 of this Article.

Granting of the said rights by the performer shall be limited by the use of the audiovisual work and, unless otherwise provided in the contract, shall not extend the rights in any separate use of the sound or the pictures embodied in the audiovisual work.

7. The exclusive rights of a performer provided by paragraph 2 of this Article may be assigned to third parties by contract.

8. The agreement on assignment of the exclusive rights may be registered at Kyrgyzpatent. Registration fees shall be collected for the registration, the amount of which and the procedure of their payment shall be established by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.

 

Article 38. Rights of the Phonogram Producer

1. Except as provided by this Law, the producer of a phonogram shall enjoy the exclusive rights to exploit the phonogram in any form, including the right to remuneration for each form of use of this phonogram.

The exclusive right to use the phonogram shall mean the right to perform or authorize the following act:

1) reproduction of the phonogram; 2) adaptation or any other transformation of the phonogram; 3) distribution of copies of the phonogram, for instance by sale, rental, etc.; and 4) importation of copies of the phonogram for the purposes of distribution, including copies made with the authorization of the producer of this phonogram in question.

3. Where copies of a lawfully published phonogram have been placed on the market by sale, they may be further distributed without the consent of the producer of the phonogram and without payment of remuneration.

The right to distribute copies of the phonogram by rental shall belong to the producer of a phonogram regardless of the ownership of the said copies.

4. The exclusive rights of the producer of a phonogram provided by paragraph 2 of this Article may be assigned or licensed to third parties by contract.

5. The agreement on assignment of the exclusive rights may be registered at Kyrgyzpatent. Registration fees shall be collected for the registration, the amount and the procedure of payment shall be established by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.

 

Article 39. Use of a Phonogram Published for Commercial Purposes without Consent of the Producer of Phonogram and the Performer

1. As an exception to the provisions of Articles 37 and 38 of this Law, the following acts shall be authorized without consent of the producer of a phonogram published for commercial purposes and the performer, whose performance is recorded on such a phonogram, but against payment of remuneration:

1) public performance of the phonogram; 2) broadcasting of the phonogram; and 3) communication of the phonogram to public by cable.

2. Remuneration provided by paragraph 1 of this Article shall be collected, distributed and paid out by an organization for the collective administration of the rights of producers of phonograms and performers (Article 44 of this Law) pursuant to the agreement concluded between these organizations. Except where otherwise provided in the said agreement, the remuneration shall be split equally between the producer of a phonogram and the performer.

3. The amount of the remuneration and the manner of its payment thereof shall be determined by agreement between the user of a phonogram or the unions (associations) of such users, on the one hand, and organizations managing the rights of producers of phonograms and performers, on the other hand, in the event the parties fail to reach such an agreement, by Kyrgyzpatent.

The amount of remuneration shall be set for each form of use of the phonogram.

4. The users of phonograms shall be bound to submit to the organization specified in paragraph 2 of this Article programs containing detailed information on the number of uses of the phonogram, as well as the other information and material as is necessary for collection and distribution of remuneration.

 

Article 40. Rights of Broadcasting Organizations

1. Except as provided by this Law, broadcasting organizations with respect to their program shall enjoy the exclusive rights to use the program in any form and authorize the use of the program, including the right to receive remuneration for granting such permission.

2. The exclusive right to authorize the use of a program shall mean the right of the broadcasting organization to authorize the following acts:

1) the simultaneous broadcasting of this program by the other broadcasting organization; 2) the communication of the program to the public by a cable; 3) the recording of the program; 4) the reproduction of the recording of the program; 5) the communication of the program to the public in places where a charge is made for admission.

3. The exclusive right of the broadcasting organization provided by subparagraph 4 of paragraph 2 of this Article, shall not extend to the cases when:

the recording of the program has been made with the consent of the broadcasting organization; the program is reproduced for the same purposes as those for which it was recorded pursuant to the provisions of Article 42 of this Law.

 

Article 41. Rights of Cable Distribution Organization

1. Except as provided in this Law, cable-broadcasting organizations shall enjoy the exclusive rights to use the program in any form and authorize the use of the program, including the right to receive remuneration for granting such authorization.

2. The exclusive right to authorize the use of a program shall mean the right of the cable distribution organization to authorize the following acts:

1) the simultaneous cable communicate the program to the public by another cable distribution organization; 2) the broadcasting of the program; 3) the recording of the program; 4) the reproduction of the recording of the program; and 5) the communication of the program to general public in places where a charge is made for admission.

3. The exclusive right of a cable distribution organization provided under subparagraph 4 of paragraph 2 of this Article shall not extend to cases in which:

– the program has been recorded with the consent of the cable distribution organization; – the program is reproduced for the same purposes as those for which it was recorded under the provisions of Article 42 of this Law.

 

Article 42. Limits of the Rights of the Performer, the Phonogram Producer, the Broadcasting or Cable Distribution Organization

1. Notwithstanding the provisions of Articles 37 to 41 of this Law it shall be permissible without consent from the performer, the phonogram producer and the broadcasting or cable distribution organization, and without payment of remuneration, to make use of the performance or the broadcast or cabled program or the recording thereof, and to reproduce phonograms:

1) for the inclusion in a report on current events short excerpts from the performance, the phonogram, the broadcast or cabled program; 2) for the sole purposes of teaching or scientific research; 3) as a means of quoting in the form of short excerpts from such performance, the phonogram or the broadcast or cabled program provided that such quotation is done for information purposes. In this case any use of copies of a phonogram published for commercial purposes by broadcasting or cable distribution organization shall be allowed for broadcasting or cable distribution only in compliance with the provisions of Article 39 of this Law; and 4) in the other cases set forth by the provisions of Articles 18-25 of this Law for the limitation of economic rights of the author of works of literature, science and arts.

2. As an exception to provisions of Article 37 to 41 of this Law, the program may be used for broadcasting and cable distribution organization and its recording and a phonogram may be reproduced for personal purposes without consent of the performer, producer of a phonogram, and broadcasting or cabled program. Reproduction of the phonogram shall be permissible against payment of remuneration under Article 26 of this Law.

3. The provisions of Articles 37, 38, 40 and 41 of this Law concerning the authorization of the performer, producer of a phonogram or radio broadcasting and cable TV organization to make a short term use recordings of a performance, program, reproduce such recordings and reproduce a phonogram published for commercial purposes if such a short term use of the ephemeral recording or the reproduction is made by broadcasting or cable distribution organization on its own equipment and for the purposes of its own broadcasts shall not be applied based upon the conditions that:

1) the broadcasting organization has obtained prior authorization to broadcast the performance or the program of which an ephemeral recording is made or performed under the provisions of this paragraph; and 2) the ephemeral recording is destroyed within the period laid down for ephemeral recordings of works of literature, science and the arts made for the short term use by the broadcasting organization pursuant to the provisions of Article 24 of this Law, with the exception of a single copy which may be preserved in official archives if it is of purely documentary character.

4. The limitations stipulated in this Article shall not prejudice either normal exploitation of the phonogram, the performance, or the program broadcast or cable transmission and recordings thereof, as well as the normal exploitation of works of literature, science and the arts incorporated therein, and it shall likewise prejudice the legitimate interests of the performer, producer of the phonogram, the broadcasting or cable distribution organization and the authors of the works in question.

 

Article 43. Term of Related Rights

1. The rights of the performer provided in this Title shall remain effective for 50 years following the first performance.

The performer’s rights to be named and to have the performance protected against any distortion or any other derogatory act, laid down in Article 37 of this Law shall be protected without limitation in time.

2. The rights provided by this Title to the phonogram producer shall remain in effect for 50 years following the first publication of the phonogram or during 50 years following the first recording if the phonogram has not been published in the course of that period.

3. The rights provided under this Title for the broadcasting organizations shall remain effective for 50 years following the first broadcast effected by this organization.

4. The rights of the cable distribution organizations under this Title shall be protected for 50 years following the first cable transmission made by this organization.

5. Any period under paragraphs 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this Article shall be calculated as from January 1 of the year following the year in which the legal act occurred that marks the starting point of the period.

6. In the event the performer has been rehabilitated posthumously after having been the subject of repressive measures, the period of protection of his/her rights under this Article shall start from January 1 of the year following the year of rehabilitation.

7. The heirs (in the case of a legal entities, the successors in title) of the performer, the phonogram producers, broadcasting or cable distribution organization shall inherit the right to permit the use of the performance, phonogram, broadcast or cable transmissions and the right to remuneration within the limits of the non-elapsed portion of the terms as specified in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4 of this Article.

 

Title IV. COLLECTIVE ADMINISTRATION OF ECONOMIC RIGHTS

 

Article 44. Objectives of Collective Administration of Economic Rights

1. Organizations for the collective administration of the economic rights of authors, performers, phonogram producers and other owners of copyright or related rights may be created in cases where the individual exercise thereof is hampered by difficulties of a practical nature.

Such organizations shall be established directly by the owners of copyright and related rights and operate within the limits of the mandate entrusted to them and also on the basis of statutes adopted according to a procedure laid down by law. The charter of the organization, which administers the economic rights on a collective basis, must contain the provisions, which comply with the requirements of this Law. The refusal to register the organization that administers economic rights of the authors on a collective basis is allowed in the cases if the provisions of the present Law as well as legislation establishing the order of registration of public associations have been violated.

2. Either separate organizations with respect to different rights and different categories of right holders or organizations administering various rights in the interests of different categories of right owners or a single organization simultaneously administering copyright and related rights may be established.

 

Article 45. Organizations for the Collective Administration of Economic Rights

1. The mandate for the collective administration of economic rights shall be entrusted either direct, by the owners of copyright or related rights in written contracts, or under appropriate contracts with foreign organizations that administer equivalent rights. Such contracts shall not constitute author’s contracts, and the provisions of Articles 30-33 of this Law shall not extend to them.

Any author, his heir or any other owner of copyright or related rights protected pursuant to Title III of this Law, has, by contract, the right to entrust the exercise of his/her economic rights to such an organization, and the organization shall agree to exercise of those rights on a collective basis if the administration of such category of rights forms part of the statutory activities of this organization.

The organization administering economic rights on a collective basis shall not be entitled to engage in commercial activities or exploitation of the works or subject matter of related rights for which they have received a collective administration mandate.

The activity of the collective administration organization shall not be considered as monopoly, and therefore shall not be subject to limitations set forth by the anti-monopoly legislation.

2. An organization for the collective administration of economic rights shall grant users licenses for the use of the relevant works and subject matter of related rights by appropriate means. The conditions on which such licenses are granted shall be identical for all users in a given category. Such an organization shall not be entitled to refuse a license to a user without valid reason. Procedure of concluding licensing agreements shall be conducted in accordance with of Article 406 of the Civil Code of the Kyrgyz Republic.

These licensing agreements shall authorize the use of all the works and objects of related rights in any ways provided therein and shall be granted on behalf of all owners of copyright and related rights, including those who have not mandated the organization pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article.

All users who have concluded licensing agreement must carry out the state registration in the established order and obtain the state registration certificate of an appropriate form at Kyrgyzpatent. Fee in the amount spent for registration shall be charged for issuance of a certificate.

The organization that grants shall settle problems arising from claims made by owners of copyright and related on users in connection with the use, under the license, of their works or subject matter of related rights.

3. If an organization for the administration of economic rights has remuneration in its possession that has been claimed for three years following the date of the collection thereof, it may retain it and either include it in the sums that it distributes or assign it to other purposes of interest to the owners of copyright or related rights that it represents. (as amended by Law # 120 from November 6, 1999).

 

Article 46. Functions and Obligations of the Organizations for Collective Administration of Economic Rights

1. An organization for the collective administration of economic rights shall, on behalf of the owners of copyright and related rights that it represents and on the basis of the mandates entrusted to it, perform the following functions:

1) negotiation with the users, of remuneration amounts and other conditions to which the grant of licenses is subject; 2) concluding licensing agreements with the users for the exploitation of rights, the administration of which forms part of its activities; 3) negotiation, with the users, of the amount of remuneration in the event the organization is responsible for collecting such remuneration without granting a license (Article 26 and paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 39 of this Law); 4) collection of the remuneration as provided by licensing agreement and/or that referred to in subparagraph 3 of this paragraph; 5) allocation and payment of the collected remuneration to the owners of copyright and related rights represented by the organization; 6) performance of any legal act essential to the defense of the rights under the administration of which forms part of its activities; and 7) performance of any other activities in accordance with powers under mandates received from the owners of copyright and related rights.

Performance of functions, provided by subparagraphs 4 and 5 of the present point by more than one organization for the collective administration of economic rights shall not be permissible.

2. The organization for the collective administration of economic rights shall carry out the following duties in the interests of owners of copyright and related rights:

1) it shall use the remuneration collected exclusively for allocation and payment to the owners of copyright and related rights pursuant to the provisions of subparagraph 4 of paragraph 1 of the present Article. However, the organization shall have the right to deduct from the amount of remuneration collected a sum intended to cover expenditure actually incurred by it in the collection, allocation and payment of such remuneration, as well as a sum payable to a special fund established by the organization on the decision of its members. The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic shall establish the amounts of deductions to the State Intellectual Property Fund for the use of works and objects of related rights on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. 2) it shall allocate and regularly pay the collected amounts of remuneration with the deduction of the amounts referred to in subparagraph 1 of this paragraph proportionally to the actual use of works and objects of related rights concerned; 3) simultaneously with payment of remuneration to the owners of copyright and related rights it shall submit the statements containing the data on the use their rights.

2. Owners of copyright and related rights who have not mandated the organization to collect the remuneration in compliance with subparagraph 4 of paragraph 1 of this Article, shall have the right to demand that the organization pay them the remuneration accruing to them according to the allocation made or alternatively that it exclude their works or subject matter of related rights from the licenses that it grants users.

 

Article 47. Control over the Activities of Organizations for Collective Administration of Economic Rights

1. An organization for collective administration of economic rights must submit to Kyrgyzpatent that controls its activities the following data:

1) changes introduced to the charter or other founding documents of such an organization; 2) bilateral and multilateral agreements concluded by this organization with foreign organizations administering similar rights; 3) decisions of the general meetings; 4) annual balance sheet, annual statement including data on unclaimed remuneration and auditing; 5) persons, authorized to represent the organization;

2. Kyrgyzpatent has the right to require additional information from this organization, which is necessary to check the activities of this organization for compliance with this Law, legislation on public associations or other legislation, as well as the charter of the organization.

3. Kyrgyzpatent shall carry out the functions and obligations of these organizations in compliance with the present section before the creation of organizations that administer economic rights on a collective basis.

 

Title V. PROTECTION OF COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS

 

Article 48. Violation of Copyright and Related Rights

Violation of the copyright and related rights provided by this Law shall make the offender liable to civil, criminal and administrative sanctions pursuant to legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic.

 

Article 49. Civil-Legal and Other Measures for Protection of Copyright and Related Rights

Protection of copyright and related rights is carried out by the court by way of:

1) recognition of the said rights; 2) restoration of the situation obtaining prior to the infringement of the right; 3) cessation of acts that infringe or create a threat of infringement; 4) payment of damages; 5) the surrender, in place of the payment of damages, of revenue derived by the infringer from the infringement; 6) payment, in place of damages or the surrender of revenue, of an indemnity in an amount between 20 and 50000 times the minimum salary set by the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic, at the discretion of the court; 7) the adoption of such other measures provided for in legislative texts and related to protection of their rights.

The choice between the measures referred to in subparagraphs 4, 5 and 6 of this paragraph shall be made by the owner of the copyright and related rights.

2. For the defense of his/her exclusive rights the owner of copyright or related rights may, according to the established procedure, bring action before a court, arbitration court, private arbitration, investigation body or bodies of preliminary investigation according to the competence thereof.

3. The counterfeit copies of the works or phonograms shall be subject to mandatory confiscation on the decision of the court or a single judge as well as the decision of the arbitration court. The confiscated counterfeit copies of the works or phonograms shall be destroyed, except for the cases when such copies are transferred to the owner of the copyright or related rights, by his request. The court or a single judge as well as arbitration court may order the confiscation of the materials and the equipment used for manufacture and reproduction of counterfeit copies of the works or phonograms.

4. By the demand of the author or owner of related rights, the person guilty of willful destruction or negligent destruction of the original of a work of fine art, manuscript or final variant of the audio-visual work (negative, original record), shall be obliged to pay material and moral damage, pursuant to requirements of paragraph 1 of this Article.

 

Article 50. Injunctions in the Cases of Violation of Copyright and Related Rights

1. The court or a single judge, as well as arbitration court may rule to prohibit the defendant or the person alleged to be an infringer of copyright or related rights provided sufficient evidence is available, to perform certain acts (production, reproduction, sale, rental, import or other use provided by this Law, as well as transportation, storage or possession with the purpose of releasing into civil turnover copies of the works or phonograms assumed to be counterfeit).

2. The court or a single judge, as well as the arbitration court may issue an injunction to seize and confiscate all copies of the works or phonograms allegedly counterfeit, as well as materials and equipment intended for their manufacture and reproduction.

In the presence of sufficient information on violation of copyright or related rights the investigation body, investigator, court or a single judge are obligated to take measures in the form of the location and descriptive seizure of allegedly counterfeit copies of works or phonograms and also of the materials and equipment intended for manufacture and reproduction thereof, as well as documents providing evidence of violation of the provisions of this Law, and where appropriate in the form of actual seizure and delivery to a custodian.

 

Title VI. FINAL PROVISIONS

 

Article 51. Enactment of the Present Law

1. Implement the present Law as of the date of its publication.

(Erkin-Too as of January 23, 1998, # 6-7; Nasha gazeta as of January 28, 1998, # 6).

2. The present Law shall extend to the relations on creation as well as use of copyright and related rights objects arisen after its implementation.

3. Until the compliance of the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic with the present Law, the normative acts of the Kyrgyz Republic shall be applied in the parts where they do not contradict to the present Law.

4. The Law shall extend to the works and objects of related rights that have not been earlier protected by copyright, for the period remaining before expiration of 50 years from the date of its legitimate publication or before expiration of 50 years as of the date of its creation if not promulgated.

5. The term of protection of the authors’ rights stipulated by Article 27 of the present Law shall be applied to the works for which the effective term of copyright before publication of the present Law is not expired.

Within three months after publication of the present Law the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic shall:

– prepare and introduce to the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic proposals on brining the legislation in compliance with the present Law; – bring into compliance with the present Law normative acts issued by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, ministries and administrative agencies of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The President of the Kyrgyz Republic A. Akaev Adopted by the Legislative Assembly of the Jogorku Kenesh (Parliament) of the Kyrgyz Republic December 16, 1997