Russia is the birthplace of everything – Business – Kommersant

State Duma deputy Dmitry Kuznetsov, known for calling for the dismissal of artists for their anti-war stance, presented a draft of amendments designed, in his words, to provide Russians with “the cultural heritage of the whole world.” This is how he described the mechanism of compulsory licensing of foreign objects of copyright. The amendments will allow through the court to license works of culture and software, regardless of the reasons why the company does not provide them in Russia. Market participants call the idea a violation of the principles of exclusivity of law.

State Duma deputy from the party “A Just Russia – For the Truth” (SRZP) Dmitry Kuznetsov introduced a bill on compulsory licensing of objects of copyright and related rights (software, film and video products, databases) from copyright holders who left the Russian market after the start of the military Russian operations in Ukraine. Dmitry Kuznetsov is known as the secretary of the “group to investigate anti-Russian actions” created by the SRZP, which advocated breaking off relations with artists for their anti-war position, he also appealed to Russian television channels with a call not to show programs about Sofia Rotaru. It is assumed that under the amendments, published Today, the Duma database will include copyright holders associated with “foreign states and (or) international organizations” that have imposed sanctions on the Russian Federation or its citizens.

The relationship of the right holder with “unfriendly” states and organizations is proposed to be determined both by the citizenship or place of registration of the right holder, and by where he mainly operates or makes a profit.

According to the draft, the right to compulsory licensing appears if the actions of the right holder lead to the inaccessibility in Russia of the object of copyright and related rights, as well as objects “created with its use”.

The author of the project proposes to change not directly the Civil Code (CC), which contains articles on compulsory licenses for inventions and breeding achievements, but the federal law of 2006, which enacted Part 4 of the Civil Code.

If a copyright holder from an “unfriendly” jurisdiction does not sell licenses in Russia for economic reasons, his products can also be licensed through the court, Mr. Kuznetsov told Kommersant: “In my opinion, it does not matter for what reasons the copyright holder refuses to transfer rights: if he refuses It means he is against us. The author of the amendments stated: “The project will provide our people with the cultural heritage of the whole world.”

The question of where the distributor will take copies of products lies outside the scope of the project, he noted.

Russian companies that want to obtain licenses for foreign facilities will have to apply to the court, which will also establish the conditions and cost of the license, follows from the document. The project assumes that the statement of the Ministry of Culture should be attached to the application, confirming the inaccessibility of the object of copyright and related rights in Russia. If we are talking about a program or a database, the conclusion should be issued by the Ministry of Digital Development. The Mintsifra reported to Kommersant that the bill had not been submitted to the ministry for consideration. The Ministry of Culture did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

If the court decides to whom and under what conditions to sell the rights to use, then the copyright holder “ceases to be the subject who alone disposes of his works,” which will be considered a violation of the Berne Convention and other international treaties, said Alexei Byrdin, CEO of the Internet Video Association. For online cinemas, which, if the bill is passed, will resort to compulsory licensing, this will threaten to lose their presence in app stores, including on smart TV, he said. This, according to Mr. Byrdin, will also affect domestic copyright holders: “The ecosystem audience will definitely be lost, and we will roll back to the era of browsers.”

The bill contradicts both the Universal Copyright Convention and the article of the Criminal Code on infringement of copyright and related rights (clause 2 of article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), said Kirill Lyakhmanov, chief legal adviser of the intellectual property practice of the EBR law firm: “The draft proposes to introduce a rule that will allow obtaining the consent of the copyright holder under the presumption that such consent must be given, and the copyright holder himself will be obliged to prove that he cannot give consent due to some objective, valid reasons. The criteria for assessing respect, the lawyer added, are not defined in the bill.

Yuri Litvinenko