President Kiska signed a bill on copyright into law

THE NEW law on copyright aimed at helping to spread culture, education and science was signed by President Andrej Kiska on July 24.

President Andrej Kiska President Andrej Kiska (Source: Sme )

The law, proposed by the Culture Ministry and passed in parliament on July 1 by 105 votes will replace the old legislation effective since 2003 that does not reflect current practices.

On one hand, it boosts the rights of authors in that their works will not be used without their knowledge and royalties will be paid to them; on the other hand, it contains steps enabling these works to be made available to the public without great obstructions.

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One of the big changes is the enhancement of the catalogue of exceptions and limitations which enable the use of protected works without the obligation to gain the consent of the author and without paying the license remuneration – for example the right to make a copy for private use, or the use of these works by disabled people, at school performances, in libraries and their exhibition in galleries.

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The law will also strengthen the position of the author when negotiating the licence remuneration and other conditions of the licence contract, the TASR newswire wrote. It will also introduce a system of obligatory agreement on joint administration, a so-called one-stop-shop, which accommodates the needs of shops and points like hotels, bars, restaurants or hairdressers that use radio stations – unlike now, they will have to pay to just one of the organisations representing authors. 

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