Month: June 2015

Respect for IP rights is an essential feature of the innovation value chain, since rights that cannot be enforced are of no (economic) value. The lack of a clear and predictable IP enforcement system had a chilling effect on investment in IP in general. Effective enforcement of copyright in the digital world is challenging because of the inherent cross-border nature of the internet, the remaining differences in national IP enforcement systems, and the speed with which commercial-scale infringers can change the sources and location of their infringing activity.

Concept of “fair compensation” (de)

It may be inferred from the drafting history of Directive 2001/29 that the concept of ‘fair compensation’ in Article 5(2)(b) was intended to be a ‘new concept’, which, in the absence of a legal definition in the Commission proposal, required the Council to lay down guidelines on its application. Those guidelines may now be found in recital 35 in the preamble to the directive. It follows that the intention of the Community legislature was to introduce a new concept at Community level, without it being linked with pre-existing concepts in international copyright law or that of the Member States. This differentiates this concept somewhat from the concept of ‘equitable remuneration’ used in Article 5 and Article 8(2) of Directive 2006/115, which originated from international copyright law and was adopted verbatim in the Community legal system.

Administration of Russian president does not support idea of Russian internet tax; it will be not implemented as reported RBC. Kremlin’s position is that the internet tax is without prospects. Conception of global license was declined; decision to do it has been already made in writing as internal document.

Russian ministry of communication opposes responsibility for hyperlinks and reposts in internet as deputy of minister of communication Alexey Volin has stated. According to Interfax, Volin stated that currently there is no clear legal definition of repost and there is…

According to Vedomosti, after closed meeting where the idea of internet tax was considered, Russian minister of culture Vladimir Medinsky stated he is not a partisan of Russian internet tax because he is not able to answer the certain questions…

Why Russian government, Russian ministry of culture, rights holders, who have proposed their own idea of registry of rights in content for their exercise in internet and hope to receive money from Russian state for its implementation, did not mention one very important thing? Who has proposed this idea? The answer is – Russian Union of Right holders, collecting private copying levy.

According to RBC Internet companies at the meeting in MinCom considered the idea of single registry of rights in content for its usage in internet. Among the participants at the meeting were internet companies, right holders and representatives of Mincom and Ministry of economic development. There was no representative of Ministry of culture who did not only uphold the Russian “internet tax” but also formulate it in writing. Participants decided to develop idea in working groups and make from this idea a draft law.