The Draft Law “On additions and amendments to Law no. 35/2016 On Copyright and other Related Rights”

A draft law “On additions and amendments to Law no. 35/2016 On Copyright and other Related Rights” is proposed by the Council of Ministers, aiming to further align and improve the legislation with the acquis communautaire and to regulate the operation of Collective Administration Agencies (CAAs).

The recent developments in the field of intellectual property as well as the rapid steps towards digitalization resulted in the need for adapting the current Law to the three following EU directives:

• Directive 2012/28/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 “On certain permitted uses of orphan works”;
• Directive 2017/1564 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2017 “On certain permitted uses of certain works and other subject matter protected by copyright and related rights  for  the  benefit  of  persons  who  are  blind,  visually  impaired  or  otherwise  print-disabled” and amending Directive 2001/29/EC “On the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society”;
• Directive 2011/77/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2011 amending Directive 2006/116/EC “On the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights”.

The draft law introduces two new concepts with regards to orphan works and the diligent search procedure. It creates a legal framework to facilitate the digitization and dissemination of orphan works and other subject-matter which are protected by copyright or related rights and for which no rightholder is identified or for which the rightholder, even if identified, is not located.

An orphan work is deemed as such after having performed and recorded a diligent search, which is conducted before the use of the work by searching in the appropriate sources for the category of the work. The rights of identified co-authors and whose location is known remain intact.

The draft law recognizes the possibility of unrestricted use of orphan works by public libraries, educational institutions or museums, other legal entities performing museum activities, archives, film archive or audiovisual institutions and public broadcasters established in Albania. However, in the circumstances that the author or co-author of an orphan work decides to terminate this status, the author/co-author is entitled to a fair compensation for the use of its work.

The draft law provides for the possibility of using copyrighted works by individuals  and legal entities referred to as authorized entities, which represent the interests of persons with disabilities, as long as they act without purposes of economic gain, without the authorization of the author or rightholder of a work and without reward.

The latest amendments provided in the draft law anticipate that collective administration agencies are authorized to collect copyright royalties and distribute to their members on a contract basis as well as to non-member rightholders, only with the written consent of the latter.

The One-stop Shop/Counter in cooperation with the collective administration agencies, will perform the function of collecting fees for all categories of rightholders in collective administration and of issuing permits/authorizations to user entities.