International Ip Developments

• Publication year: 2015
• Author: AURELIA J. SCHULTZ Schultz Law Office

International IP Developments

AURELIA J. SCHULTZ Schultz Law Office

ONLINE INFRINGEMENT AND ORPHAN WORKS ADDRESSED IN NEW LEGISLATIONS1

Canada

The Notice-and-Notice law enacted by Canada last June came into effect at the beginning of 2015.² The law codifies a pre-existing practice. When content owners learn about online infringing uses of their copyrighted works, they notify the ISPs who then pass that notice on to the alleged infringer. The information required for a Canadian notice in the Notice-and-Notice system is very similar to the requirements for a notice in the US Notice-and-Takedown system.³ There is no takedown requirement like in the US and no other legal penalties attached to the Notice-and-Notice system.⁴

Italy

Italy has also made recent amendments to its copyright law. The country's law is now in-line with the EU Orphan Works Directive that was issued in 2012.⁵ The goal of the Orphan Works Directive is to facilitate the preservation and dissemination of cultural works when the inability to identify or locate the author would prevent licensing of the rights affected.⁶ Libraries, education institutions and museums accessible to the public, as well as certain institutions engaged in archiving, can copy orphan works for preservation purposes and can make orphan works available to the public.⁷ If an author is known but cannot be contacted, i.e. if the work is an orphan because the author cannot be located, the author must be given attribution for the work.⁸ As specified in the EU Directive, a diligent search is required before a work can be declared an Orphan Work.⁹ The new Italian law lays out procedures for conducting a diligent search.¹⁰ Authors can come forward and claim their works in order to bring them out of orphan status.¹¹

As part of the EU Orphan Works Directive, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) has launched an Orphan Works database. This database allows users to search for works that have been declared as Orphan Works. Users can search by description, title, category or right holder. The database is available at https://oami.europa.eu/orphanworks/.

Spain

New copyright laws came into effect at the beginning of 2015 in Spain, addressing both online infringement and orphan works.¹² Spain's procedure for online infringement utilizes a government Commission (he Seccion Segunda de la Comision de Propiedad Intelectual) that can initiate proceedings against alleged infringers. Copyright owners must first send a notice to the ISP, before contacting the Commission to start any proceedings.¹³

Spain's...