The draft law is aimed at implementing resolutions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (CC RF) No. 28-P of December 13, 2016 and No. 40-P of July 24, 2020. In these rulings, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation decided that it is necessary to ensure that the amount of compensation for violation by one action of the rights to several results of intellectual activity should be reduced below the limits established in the law, if the court considering the case comes to the conclusion that compensation, even calculated in the minimum amount allowed by the general rules, is clearly disproportionate to the nature of the offense committed.
Compensation for violation of exclusive rights is the main measure of liability, which has been repeatedly used by copyright holders over the past 15 years (instead of proving the amount of actual losses). Currently, there are three ways to calculate compensation:
- from 10,000 to 5,000,000 rubles;
- double the cost of counterfeit media;
- double the cost of the right of use.
Most often, the copyright holders used the calculation from 10,000 to 5,000,000 rubles. The double cost of the right of use was applied much less frequently. The proposed bill carries a number of significant risks for copyright holders:
- The draft law establishes a rule according to which the totality of various actions of one violator in relation to various works and phonograms belonging to one or several different copyright holders can be qualified as one offense if all these actions are interrelated and entail a common economic result. Example: the violator brings to the public various musical works and phonograms through a pirate website on the Internet. The "economic result" of the violator is formed by receiving funds from advertising on his website. At the same time, users of the site listen to musical works and phonograms belonging to different copyright holders that are not related to each other. From the point of view of the bill, this will be a single violation, compensation can be calculated and paid only once. This provision significantly worsens the situation of copyright holders and lowers the level of protection.
- The draft changes the minimum and maximum limits of liability for certain violations. So, the liability is limited to the amount of 100,000 rubles for the following cases (it is sufficient to have only one separate criterion):
- the violator did not know and should not have known that he was committing a violation;
- the violation was committed for the first time;
- the violation was not committed in the course of entrepreneurial activity.
As an example, the owner of a pirate site – an individual without the status of an individual entrepreneur, posted a set of phonograms of different copyright holders on his website.
The NFMI expects the draft law to be finalized with the participation of the expert community.
We are ready to promptly answer media questions, provide journalists with the necessary information about the work of the Association, comment on news issues related to music and related areas.
Web: www.nfmi.ru, e-mail: info@nfmi.ru
Tax ID Number: 7710477111
Registration Number: 1087799027359
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.