Albania

[AL] Severe Sanctions for Piracy

IRIS 2002-1:1/27

Hamdi Jupe

Albanian Media Monitoring Center

On 5 October 2001 the Parliament of the Republic of Albania passed a "Law on Supplements and Amendments to Law No. 7564 on Copyright".

For the main part the amendments introduce new civil law sanctions for piracy of intellectual property as up to now the Law "On Copyright" provided for criminal prosecution only.

Accordingly, national radio and television stations, hotels, producers of tapes and video cassettes as well as other producers of artistic works now have to pay fines of EUR 600 to 3000 in cases of violation of intellectual property rights. Local radio and television stations, discos, bars, restaurants and other minor users of the intellectual property could be fined EUR 400 to 1000 in cases of piracy.

The executive body will be the tax authorities, thus avoiding long court procedures as in the case of criminal prosecution.