The new rates of royalties for authors of audio-visual works and authors of works used in films, including rates for producers of such works, have been “officially” approved. They will be due for cable re-transmission. The new rates will replace, by virtue of law, the contractual ones, if they are different than the approved rates.

The Constitutional Tribunal (hereinafter: CT) received an inquiry from the Supreme Court (hereinafter: SC) pertaining to the constitutionality of provision of Art. 79.1.3 of the Act on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights of 4 February 1994 (Polish Journal of Laws [Dz.U.] of 2019, item 1231) in reference to the possibility of authors seeking a double amount of remuneration for copyright infringement.

We want to invite you to a brief discussion of novelties which, on account of the Directive on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC (“DSM Directive”) of 17 April 2019, will soon be introduced to the copyright law.

On 5 April 2019, the Government Legislation Centre published draft amendments of the Minister of Justice pertaining to the Polish Civil Procedure Code (hereinafter referred to as CPC). The amendments would enter into force on 1 January 2020. The deadline for submitting remarks to the draft amendments passes on 19 April 2019.

On 12 March 2019, information about the new composition of the 9th Term Copyright Commission was published in the Official Journal of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and on the websites of the Public Information Bulletin. We are pleased to announce that Attorney Janusz Piotr Kolczyński, the managing partner of the Law Firm, is among 20 arbiters appointed by Minister Professor Piotr Gliński.

The media has recently spread the news that Andrzej Sapkowski, author of the “Witcher” novel, has demanded that CD Projekt S.A. increase his remuneration for the transfer of the copyright to “Witcher”. The author has requested, via his lawyers [request for payment], to be paid additional PLN 60m, which would reflect the market success of the computer game of the same title published by CD Projekt.

On 19 July 2018, the new Act on Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights of 15 June 2018 entered into force. In Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Attorney Janusz Piotr Kolczyński commented on the new provisions.

We are presenting the conversation of Janusz Piotr Kolczyński, Att. with Wirtualnemedia.pl website about some provisions of the draft EU directive amending copyright.

We recommend a presentation by Janusz Piotr Kolczyński delivered at Warsaw University on 11 April 2018 during a seminar chaired by Professor Monika Czajkowska-Dąbrowska concerning inalienable remuneration (audiovisual royalties) for the use of audiovisual work.

You are heartily welcome to read the newest comments by Janusz Piotr Kolczyński, Att. for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (hereinafter: “DGP”) and Wirtualnemedia.pl website (hereinafter: ‘WM”), pertaining to the precedent-setting decision of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw of 29 August 2017, file ref. No. VI ACa 600/16 with respect to the dissemination, through Chomikuj.pl website, of files deriving from illegal sources in the context of the size of the damage caused by such activity.