Lawyers’ commentary for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna pertaining to the new Act on Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights

21 July 2018

On 19 July 2018, the new Act on Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights of 15 June 2018 entered into force (Journal of Laws [Dz. U.] No. 2018 item 1293, hereinafter referred to as the “Act on CMCRR”). In Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Attorney Janusz Piotr Kolczyński commented on the new provisions.

Changes in the Table Approval Procedure

According to the attorney, the return to the administrative procedure, proposed in the Act, deprives it of contradictory elements which functioned successfully, forcing the collective management organisation (hereinafter: the “CMO”) to greater evidence activity. In his opinion, the table-related issues are characterised by contrary interests and should be approved as part of a dispute and determination of standpoints under the control of a quasi-court authority. The rates should not be subject to official normativisation. Nowadays, the rates in approved tables have to be fixed, official and subject to state control. J.P. Kolczyński also fears that the adopted model may be inconsistent with the European Union law in a scope in which the official rates replaced the market rates in Poland.

Better changes in legal presumption of representation by the CMO

J.P. Kolczyński also indicated the benefits of the new Act: “The provisions stipulate that there is no universal representation obligation, which had been aggressively pushed forward by the CMO circles and accepted without any criticism by the courts. Today, a CMO cannot say that it will grant a licence encompassing all the authorised parties in a given category, even the ones not included in its’ portfolio. Such a decision may potentially be made by a minister, who grants a given CMO the right to act as a representative organisation, i.e. an organisation that also acts for the benefit of authors who do not have a contractual relationship with it.” According to J.P. Kolczyński, the issue above will influence the licence price. The minister will also be required to initiate, within 6 months from entry of the act into force, proceedings to establish representation.

Complete article is available here.

More about the new act here.

Source: Dziennik Gazeta Prawna