From 1 November 2013, copyright laws will change as Slovak law is harmonised with EU copyright law.
Major changes include:
- ‘School work’ now also includes works produced by children attending kindergarten.
- ‘Collections’ can be copyrighted in any form whatsoever (including analogue or digital format) and can comprise newspapers, as long as they have the attributes of a work.
- Specifying that a work can be protected by copyright if it is the intellectual creation of its author, even if it contains information on current events or economic, political or other social topics. The change makes clear that it this type of work is not the ‘classical informative’ daily report, which is exempt from copyright protection.
- Those who are required to pay a fee for producing copies of published works (such as producers of blank media, reprographic equipment, computers, providers of copy services) must notify the organisation in charge of collective administration of the type, number and import cost or sales price of goods imported to third countries or dispatched to another member state.
- Museums and galleries will be able to use statutory licences, allowing them to use works without the author’s consent for the purpose provided by law. This was previously only possible for public libraries and archives.
- Only exclusive, mass and collective licensing agreements will need to be in writing (but, where a licence agreement is executed in writing, any sublicensing or license assignment must also be in writing unless provided otherwise by the agreement).
- Any party to a licensing agreement that is not in writing can, within 15 days of its execution, require the counterparty to issue a written certificate confirming that it has been executed and that it contains the information required by law. The agreement will be deemed not to have been executed if the counterparty fails to issue the certificate within 15 days of such request.
- A license will be deemed to have been granted for use of the work in the manner, scope and duration necessary to achieve the purpose of the agreement unless the license agreement specifies the manner of using the work, the scope and duration of license, (unless the purpose of the agreement indicates otherwise, the license is limited to the territory of Slovakia and for the period of 1 year of granting).
- All or part of the contents of a licence agreement can be determined by reference to licence terms and conditions which are known or available to the parties at the time of execution.
- Authors are entitled to a ‘standard fee’ (the standard amount payable on similar terms and conditions at the time the licence is executed) except where the fee or the method of calculating it is agreed by the parties, or where the agreement provides that the licence is granted free of charge or this arrangement follows from the licence purpose.
- Non-exclusive licences (such as ‘click-through licences’) can be granted free of charge by unilateral legal act directed towards an unspecific audience.
- Authors affected by breach of copyright can now ask for two times the standard fee to be surrendered as unjust enrichment.
- Executive artists' rights are gaining more protection. In some cases, they may be entitled to an additional fee; in others, the period for which their rights are protected may be increased from from 50 to 70 years. It will also be possible for them to withdraw from a contract with the producer of an audio recording after 50 years.
- The rights of producers of audio recordings will be protected for 70 (instead of 50) years as long as the audio recording has been released or publicly transferred and the executive artist has not withdrawn from the licence after 50 years.
- Some provisions regarding collective administration of rights have been reformed.
- The new laws will govern all current economic rights not expiring before 31 October 2013.
Law: amendment to the Copyright Act No. 618/2003 Coll. as amended (last amendment – Act No. 289/2013 Coll.); implementation of EU Directive 2011/77/EU amending Directive 2006/116/EC
